Children Who Suffer from Tinnitus

My son is 12 years old and started getting vertigo and throwing up earlier this summer. This seems to have passed however now he has in and out tinnitus. It has made him miss a ton of school. We have put him on a low salt diet. They say it is very much like meniers. I don't think he has meniers - but I do think he has an inner ear problem that is causing the ringing. In my heart I feel that he will grow out of it - but the more I read about tinnitus - I'm just not so sure. Any feedback anyone can provide on children suffering from ringing in the ear would be much appreaciated.

 

Very sorry to hear that, have the doctors ruled out viral ear infections? 12 seems very young for menieres. I would continue to look for 2nd and even third opinions if need be.

 

If viral - how do you treat it? It all came out of nowhere. The one thing we keep going back to is that it started just after we adopted a dog from a shelter. All the docs say it has nothing to do with that....but I still wonder.

 

I believe there are anti viral medications out there. But again i would see other doctors maybe someone who specialized in treating meienres , again he just seems really young for that. Did he get an audiogram and if so how was it? usually people with menieres have a distinctive audiogram with hearing loss in the lower frequencies which results in a lower tone tinnitus. Does he still have vertigo attacks? Its possible he had an ear infection that resulted in the vertigo and it has tun its course, and now he maybe left with tinnitus. Im no doctor but if he's still having vertigo i would continue to press for more answers. If its just tinnitus now, he likely will grow out of it eventually.

 

He has some hearing loss in the low frequencies which they say is typical with meniers. He has not had the vertigo attacks in 6 weeks. The tinnitus is higher pitched. It comes and goes throughout the day.

 

@CRM
How is your son doing?