Vocal cord problems

Nicole - posted on 05/11/2010

My daughter is very quiet and has trouble speaking partly due to having scar tissue near or at her vocal cords. Hers were caused because she tugged and pulled on her breathing tube til it caused irritation. She also completely pulled it out a few times and due to the swelling the Drs had trouble getting tubes back in. So with all that there is some restriction in there now. When she gets a cold or sore throat now it cause complication because swells causing breating issues and we often end up back in the hospital. Drs are saying as she grows and the trachea grows this problem will correct itself. She was born 15 weeks premature and had breathing tubes for 4 1/2 months, she is now almost 3

Karen - posted on 03/15/2010

my son just got off the vent. He has been on it since birth 12 weeks ago. The first times they extubated you couldnt hear his cry but the RT told me his vocal cords would heal and his voice would return but now reading this im scared he probably got vocal cord dammage .. he also had heart surgery which doesnt help. I guess we will have to wait and see

Jackie - posted on 03/14/2010

My son had paralized voal cords due toa PDA Ligation he had at only 20 days old and 2lb. He also had a stridor. This caused issues when it came time to finally learn how to drink from a bottle and he stayed on caffeine for awhile. I was terrified when he finallly came home home after 3 1/2 months because i was afraid i wouldn't HEAR him cry. Eventualy, they got better and were completely healed by around 7 months and thanklfuly has not any any issues since.

Debra - posted on 02/05/2010

My Daughter Danielle is now 19 and went threw a reconstruction on her nasal passage at age 17, they also found out when that her vocal cords have a problem from the ventilation.
Danielle speaks very low some times it is hard to hear her. At one point a E.N.T . doctor recommended a surgical procedure to help her voice.

Kelley - posted on 02/03/2010

I hope the op went well Lorea! Yes Sam was NG tube fed for 11 months. Infections are usually caused from other's germs. He has a sister at school who brins home lots of germs, swine flu being one of them. Sam ended up in hospital for a week and a half!!

Drs have decide to do lung function tests to make sure his chronic lkung disease isn't getting worse from silent aspiration, if it is thay'll prob do op, not sure yet!!

Lorea - posted on 01/28/2010

good news we saw our ENT today her vocal cord has come back completely, moving normally. but now i'm so scared because we have heart surgery in 5 days and they said it could go into paralisis again so cross your fingers for us. she will be ventalated. hopefully it will be ok. wish us luck Lorea:)

Emilie - posted on 01/23/2010

Hi, my son has a paralyzed vocal cord from PDA ligation at 3 1/2 weeks. His vocal cord is stuck closed, so he doesn't have any feeding issues. He has been checked for aspiration multiple times and they are now pretty sure it isn't happening. He does have problems with the volume and clarity of his speech. According to the ENTs, a paralyzed vocal cord "shouldn't" cause that, but for him it did. He attends speech therapy and is making progress. He did have issues with eating (and breathing) due to the paralyzed vocal cord early on. He actually stayed on caffeine until 5 months of age because it helped prevent him breathe freely. He also has stridor (sounds a little like wheezing to the uneducated, but is totally different medically), which has been entertaining to explain to caregivers!

Lorea - posted on 01/19/2010

hi my daughter had a paralized right vocal cord 2 months after birth,she suddenly went hoarse and would fall alseep into her feedings we were lucky as she was not ventalated at birth and had not had heart surgery yet, which they say can cause this problem.she was aspirating ,thank goodness for bc children hosp. they did some tests and found the problem.she was ng tube fed for 6 months then they put in a mic-key button, they were not sure if her paralisis was permanent or not. as of this past june her vocal cord started moving again it is not as strong as the other one but is getting there.we started her on puree andnow she has fingers foods,meats are still chopped very fine,she still tends to chew and spit the food out, but some goes down.for her water, milk,soup is good what bother's her is thicker liquids she gages and refuses to swallow.she actually holds this in her mouth and cries,pudding,some yogurt unless i thin it out with milk. we have been working our way out of the g tube feedings right now all the tube feedings are for her formula or pediasure to give her extra calories or to top her up if she does not eat enough. this just keeps maintaining her wieght. i'm surprised that they have not suggested tube feeding for you son to get him the extra caleries and to stop him from having infections. my daughter has had bronchitis 2 times,that is all that was when she was tube fed still.other than a cold or two she has been fine,we also hook her up to a feeding pump at night to get her extra caleries too,she has been weening off of that too slowly. we had to watch the volumes and play with it if too much she throws up, so just have to watch ,and go with your child's cues.our daughter is now 19 months. she unfortunately will be undergoing surgery to fix her hole in her heart( VSD) this february2 so we have not been trying as hard to get her off the feeding tube as right now she needs to gain as much as possible. i hope this helped if you have any questions ,ask i may have missed somethings but this seems to be the bulk of it any ways good luck.