bsolutely! When your child has an ear infection, he has fluid inside his middle ear. The ear works through tiny moving pieces inside the middle ear. When the ear fills up with fluid, those tiny pieces can’t move as well and the sound doesn’t pass to the brain as well. Imagine turning on the radio and submerging your ears into a bath or pool. You may still be able to hear that there is music playing, but you probably won’t be able to understand the lyrics anymore. That’s how it is when children have fluid in their ears. When a child has an ear infection, there is fluid in the ear and it is infected. However, the antibiotics that your child’s doctor will prescribe may only clear up the infection but leave the fluid. Some children have fluid in their ears constantly, even when it’s not infected. This can cause major speech and language delays as described above in the description of a mild hearing loss. It is important to have your doctor check your child’s ears regularly (at your check-ups) to make sure he doesn’t have fluid hanging around where it shouldn’t be.
