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WHAT HAS EAR WAX GOT TO DO WITH ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER (ADD)? – A mother’s cry

WHAT HAS EAR WAX GOT TO DO WITH ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER (ADD)? – A mother’s cry

When Teresa was 4 yr old, she will have the TV loud

She will not answer right away when you call her

I thought she was stubborn

I will always have the pediatrician check her ear every annual physical

He would say everything was fine

This went on till she was 7 years

Her 2nd grade teacher started complaining that Teresa was not paying attention in class

What I could get from her was that she had ADD

She suggested psychiatric evaluation for Tess

Which my maternal instinct will not hear any of

I insisted to the pediatrician that Teresa had problem with her hearing

But each time they dismissed me and said nothing was wrong with her hearing or the ears

At one point, I took the bull by the horn and used the Otoscope and checked Teresa ears by myself

I could not see anything, but darkness and no light reflex

Her ears were smelling too

Soon after I took her to a community clinic where I worked part-time as a Nurse Practitioner

There we did an ear lavage

Lots of black discharge came out of Teresa ears

At that point I knew I was right

I called the pediatrician’s office asking for my daughter to be referred to an ear specialist

The ENT specialist did ear suction and on this day I cried seeing all the junk that came out of my daughter's ear

I felt that she had been suffering for years

I told the specialist everything about the fact that the pediatrician would not listen to me

He said that some children produce excessive ear wax that affects their hearing

And Teresa happened to be one of those patients

They did hearing tests on Tess and she was fine

And I was relieved

But still felt guilt for not pushing harder when the pediatrician wound not listen to me

Following this, Teresa is now scheduled for quarterly ENT visit for ear lavage

After every ear lavage, Teresa will cover her ears for 2 days because every music is now too loud for her Keep in mind this is somebody who used to turn the music loud to hear it

She will smile and give me a hug and say “Mom I can hear everything now!”

Her teacher never picked on her again

 She will also tell us that Teresa is improving in class, but we did not tell her what we did for Teresa

Till now, she still goes for ear lavage regularly every 4 months

Her last one was this past September

 Once in a while, we instill debrox,  the ear wax remover, to help her clean out the ear canal

 Needless to say Teresa is an A student now that she can hear. 

Next time before you child is labelled ADD or put on medicine for ADD, have the ears checked first.

Mrs. Scholar Nwoke (nee Okorie) (BHO Contributor), NP, Doctor of Optometry

Last updated October 1, 2015