Microtia/deformed ear

amother

Tue, May 09 2006, 10:01 pm

Yes, my 2 year old son was born with one deformed ear. I didn´t know the name microtia. From the time he was born, we have been making tests and in contact with doctors to know if and how much he could hear. B"H the deformity is only external and the nerve is fine so his hearing is very good. Just to be safe, the doctor suggested that he have speech therapy soon after he turned one just to make sure that he shouldn´t lose out this time of learning to speak. B"H he speaks very nicely for his age.

Do you have specific questions?
Is your case similiar?

amother

Tue, May 09 2006, 10:58 pm

Basically the ear does not form properly - some people have a small lump and some have more. With my son it's a little weird because it LOOKS like an ear except it's very small and missing some of the folds. It kind of looks a bit like a doll ear. The bad part is that he is also missing an ear canal, in other words there is no hole for the sound to enter. That is what is a little unusual - usually if the ear canal is missing then there is less of a shape present.
B"H my son hears excellently well from his other ear and it totally compensates and I think his speech is very good, but he is only 2 1/2 so it is hard to tell yet. He does have a problem locating sound.
B"H we have excellent specialists and we are on top of it.
I guess my questions are:
1. Would you consider reconstruction of the ear.? I don't know if it's worse to put him through the surgery or suffer with a deformed ear.
2. If you have a child who is missing the ear canal, would you/did you do the surgery? I understand there are side effects. Do you know what they are?
Thanks alot