Stopped Cooing

[Anonymous]

Around Thanksgiving, Jackson was cooing and making noises constantly. For the last two weeks, it has dropped off dramatically. I am wondering if he has fluid in his ears. He does NOT seem to be any pain. Still smiling and making eye contact, but does not respond to me with any noises. Is it possible for babies to have fluid in their ears without any pain? Should I take him to the pediatrician?

[Anonymous]

This totally happened to Evie and I freaked out, but she just one day started again. I have read that sometimes they stop doing things when they learn another new skill. A few months later, she actually had another cooing/babbling hiatus, and started talking again a week or two later. Now, I just think it’s her personality. Some days she screams, yells, and has sentences of gibberish, but like today, she’s been quiet. My ped says as long as “she can” coo/babble, there’s no worry if she doesn’t do it for a while. As for fluid in the ears, I hadn’t even thought of it, but it’s entirely possible. There’s so many things about infancy that I’ll never know or understand!!!

[Anonymous]

Thank you for responding. I was starting to think that Jackson was the only one that had gone through this! He is certainly not in any pain, but it will be two weeks tomorrow since this whole thing started. He is not silent, but is a lot quieter and he is not making the same kinds of noises that he was making. He is grunting and yelling, but not playing with different sounds like before. Katie, how long did it last for your daughter?

I have read that babies can have fluid in their ears and if it is not infected (and therefore, not painful), they may display no symptoms other than subtle signs of hearing loss (i.e., not responding with coos or less attentive). The fluid usually clears up on its own, but it can linger and delay speech development. I am taking him to the doctor tomorrow. Is there anything that they can do short of tubes to clear fluid that is not infected?

[Anonymous]

Alex did the same thing. She ended up getting tubes later on, but I really don’t think that the cooing had anything to do with fluid. She was seeing the doctor every couple of weeks at the time and he never mentioned fluid. Those issues all started later on.

[Anonymous]

My oldest had fluid in his ears for about 2 months when he was 8-10 months old, and the doctor tried an antihistamine to dry it up, but with no luck. His ears never got infected, but we ended up having tubes put in because we were worried it might affect speech development. But it didn’t, and in hindsight I wish I had waited it out another month to see if the fluid would clear on its own…

Anyway, my second son Nathan was babbling like crazy a couple of weeks ago, and now he’s quit. He’s still making lots of other noises, though, so I’m trying not to worry too much. I think babies just move onto other skills sometimes and seem to temporarily forget the old, but it’ll come back.

Please let us know what you find out tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

Well, I had an appointment at 2 pm today. I dressed Jackson and suddenly, he would not stop making noises! I decided to wait to see the doctor. Hopefully, he will continue to make sounds like he did today! If not, I will take him to the ENT doctor later in the week.

[Anonymous]

My lo Ashlynn just had a vist with a ENT to check hearing which she passed with flying colors, but her rt ear has fluid in it. I would have never guessed it though becasure she never ran a fever like my 2 y/o did when she got a ear infection. Ash does have days where she will be quiet and then watch when she does start to babbly becasue she makes up for it. I still worry about her alot. We go back to the ENT is 2 months and if there is still fluid we might have to do tubes, so that is does not effect her hearing and speech development

[Anonymous]

Stacey- When Ashlynn started babbling again, was it a lot? Jackson had such a vocal day today, that I just did not think that the doctor was necessary. Maybe I jumped the gun and should have kept the appointment. We are flying to Texas for Christmas, so I would like to know if there is fluid in Jackson’s ears before that time.

[Anonymous]

Yes it was. You might want to go ahead and take him ,since you are flying. Flying can do a number on lo’s ears, espeacially if they have fluid or a ear infection. A coworker had to give her lo benedrayll so that they coud fly when she had a ear infection

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