Q&A

Subject: Chicken pox

From AB in UK

My 2 year old son had chicken pox at the age of approx. 18 months and after that he appeared to stop hearing, even his developing speech stopped, we took him to our doctor and was told there was nothing wrong. He then had an ear infection at the same time as his 2 elder brothers and it was treated and it cleared up, We were still concerned 2 weeks later as his hearing had still not returned and went to our health visitor about it, she said that it was not his hearing that had gone but that he was lazy and slow at learning and she decided that he needed speech therapy, so she arranged it. We took him for the first session and the clinic gave him a check over and asked if we had any concerns about our son and we told them that he appeared to have a hearing problem and that his speech had stopped because of it, the doctor at the clinic asked us if our son had passed his 18 month hearing check, (which he had done just before he had chicken pox) and we told the doc that he had and we were told that there was nothing they could do about it. Now 6 months down the line, a new doctor for our children, and a new health visitor, and after finally having a hearing test performed, he has to have hearing aids fitted, if they had listened to us 6 months ago, is there a chance he could now have normal hearing? I would appreciate your opinion on this as we feel our son has possibly been robbed of a normal hearing life. yours sincerely Mrs. A.B. Thank you for your time.

Dear Mrs. AB,

I am so sorry to hear about your son. I can imagine your frustration during your search for an answer and your dismay when that answer finally came! He has indeed been robbed of a normal hearing life but robbed by Fate rather than Physician. It is unlikely that medical intervention would have changed the outcome. Some virus infections get into the nerve itself and do irreparable damage. Mumps is another nasty virus which virtually wipes out hearing in the affected ear. Some aggressive physicians use steroids in valiant attempts to try everything but with little or no success. I am glad that your son is a candidate for hearing aids and that you are proceeding to get them. These devices are truly becoming better each year. I would strongly encourage their full time use so that he continues to get the language stimulation not just from speech directed toward him but also in overhearing more complex linguistic content as older family members converse among themselves.

Good Luck!
Solveig