What are the symptoms of Otitis Media?

Acute Otitis Media may result in severe pain, fever, grumpiness, misery, night waking, and the hearing is reduced. More severe complications (burst eardrum with discharge from the ear, mastoiditis, meningitis) are uncommon, but do occur. Rarely, a child may have few symptoms even with very inflamed ears; Balance may be temporarily affected in some children.

Glue Ear may have few symptoms. There is usually no fever, but ear pain may still occur, particularly at night when the child lies down. There is usually hearing loss: in some children this may be only mild, and in others, this may be sufficient to delay speech and language development for many years. This may have implications for effective learning at pre school and school. Often parents feel, erroneously, their child is ignoring them. Balance may be affected and the child may seem clumsy.