DS (5yo) has always has really waxy ears that don't seem to drain or clear the wax out themselves, for example my other children will often have wax in the opening of their ear which I wipe away in the bath, but not DS. I've asked HV/GP/nurse about it several times and was always told it's not a problem.
Back at the beginning of the summer holidays he got really upset one evening, crying and saying his ears hurt. There was no settling him so I took him to OOH. They said his ears were totally blocked with hard, impacted earwax and to follow up with my GP when they reopened. GP gave us olive oil drops and reviewed two weeks later. No change. So we did another two weeks of drops. No change. We've just finished another two weeks of olive oil drops (so six weeks of them in total) and there's still no change despite me doing it 2-3 times a day, every day.
The nurse said we'd be referred to ENT to get them cleared out and to check there's not an underlying cause. Then today she rang to say that the GP won't do the referral because DS passed his school hearing test in January. I tried explaining that the test was in January i.e., nearly nine months ago and that I do actually have concerns about his hearing. He is very early distracted and tends to tune things out, I know that in small children there is often some element of willfully not listening but quite often with DS it's like he cannot hear unless he is actually concentrating on listening. Does that make sense? If I ask him.something and, for example, he's playing or otherwise distracted he either doesn't hear me or he half - hears me. If I touch his arm or face and get him to look at me before I speak then he seems to hear me much better. He shouts too, he makes general five year old noise but this is shouting like he can't hear himself and when I point out that he's shouting he gets upsets and says (shouts) that he isn't. He is also quite nasal in his speech and struggles with certain sounds, he says num-per instead of number, bye-der instead of spider and others I can't think of off the top of my head. I've also explained this to the GP but she said that SALT think it's immaturity rather than a speech or hearing problem.
I explained all this and they still won't refer him. They want me to use the drops for another four weeks. Four more weeks of his complaining his ears are sore and telling me not to touch them and then I get the feeling at the end of it they'll want to carry it on for another few weeks and another few.
Does anyone know of anything that could help remove plugged up earwax?
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Children's health
Excessive earwax, blocked ears, and nothing is working to fix it!
bearfrills · 27/08/2014 23:48
Have you seen a speech therapy report? From the description you give here, the salt might have said that your son has a speech delay, not a speech disorder. This is usually thought to be less serious, but it doesnt mean there is no speech issue. I would think the salt would want his hearinf reviewed before seeinf him again as its an obvious possible cause, but ill eat my hat if the salt said 'and if there is no change in 9 months, no biggie.' Its possible that in your area salt resources are so stretched that delays arent treated 
If i were you i would gi to your gp and ask what the plan is - whats the evidence that if drops havent worked for x weeks they will work now? I woukd also ring a private audiologist and ask whether they would treat without ent input.
I can self-refer for a hearing test but the nurse who does them is off until next week.
I can't understand why they won't refer him either. He's spent the day shouting and asking "what'd you say?" in a really loud voice. It was like shopping with my nana 
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