How To Keep Hearing Aids On Babies

Wearing A Hearing Aid

Once the hearing aids have been fitted for the ears, your child should begin to slowly wear the hearing aid. Hearing aids dont restore normal hearing. So it may take time to get used to the different sounds transmitted by the device. Follow these tips when your child is starting to wear hearing aids:

• In an age-appropriate way, explain the hearing aid to your child and how it will help. Give your child time to ask questions.

• Be patient and give your child time to get used to the hearing aid and the sound it makes.

• Start using the hearing aid in quiet areas. Then slowly build up to noisier places.

• Experiment to see where and when the hearing aid works best for your child.

• Keep a record of any questions and concerns that you or your child have. Bring this to your child’s follow-up exam.

Does My Child Need One Or Two Hearing Aids

If your child has a hearing loss in both ears, two hearing aids are needed. If your child has a loss of hearing in one ear, only one hearing aid may be needed. Being able to hear from both sides is important for localization, hearing across distance, and hearing in background noise. Limiting hearing aid use to one ear if there is a loss in both ears limits your childâs ability to hear the best that they can. It also deprives the brain of the stimulation it needs to develop properly.

Tips For Keeping Hearing Aids On Babies/toddlers

As both an audiologist and a mother of 2 young children who wear hearing aids, I definitely understand that keeping hearing aids on your child can be a very difficult task. Young children and babies seem to love to get their hands on those hearing aids and pull them right out of their ears! I often hear from parents of babies and toddlers that they have tried to keep the hearing aids on their child, but it seems impossible. As a result the child doesnt wear the hearing aids regularly, which means he or she is not hearing very well most of the time, and this will likely delay oral speech and language development.

When 2 of my boys ended up needing hearing aids, I knew I had to do everything I could to keep their hearing aids on their ears when they were awake. Well, I can say from personal experience that the struggle is very real when it comes to keeping hearing aids on young babies and children, but utilizing some helpful tools and tips can make it a lot easier.

Tip #1 Pilot hats

Here are some great places to get pilot hats that work well with hearing aids:

Tip #2 Crochet type of Headbands

Tip #3 Toupee Tape

Tip #4 Otoclips

Here are some websites that sell otoclips:

For additional tips and resources, visit Hearinglikeme.com.

Tip #5 Positive attitude

For more information on hearing services for children or adults, visit eastersealsdfvr.org/hearing.

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What Is A Cochlear Implant

A cochlear implant is a device that helps some deaf or hard of hearing people hear. It has an internal part, and an external part. The internal part placed under the skin Behind-the-ear and inside the inner ear by the doctor. The external part includes a microphone and a speech processor and is worn outside the ear.

As Your Child Gets Less Anxious

Start to persuade your child to wear their hearing device switched off initially.

Try to get them to wear it while they are distracted doing something else.

Once they can wear it for a short while, switch it on to see whether they can tolerate it.

Remember, even if they wear it for a few seconds at a time, this is an improvement and a step in the right direction. Continue with the de-sensitisation activities and the length of time they can wear the hearing device will increase.

Try to do some de-sensitisation every day, as part of your normal routine.

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Practical Solutions For Keeping The Hearing Aid In Place

There are different accessories that can help you protect your hearing aid. One option is to use toupee tape, sticky pads, such as Phonak Stick N Stay or other adhesives but some of those may cause skin irritation and depending on the chemicals used may cause damage to your device. Whatever the reason, you should take actions immediately after you sense that you do not feel comfortable or the hearing aid is too loose. Postponing may lead to a loss of the device or damage, both outcomes being costly.

A Hearing Aid Routine

Additionally, it’s a good idea to develop a routine each day for putting your infant or child’s hearing aids on. Spend time cuddling and holding your child when you put their hearing aids in to develop a positive association with them. When your curious child pulls the hearing aids off, be consistent but gentle in replacing them each time so he or she knows that’s where they belong.

If your child repeatedly pulls on the hearing aids or his or her ears, this might be a sign of discomfort from a poorly fitting earmold. See your child’s audiologist right away to find out if it’s time to get a new pair of earmolds or domes.

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Infants Learn Very Quickly And New Neural Connections Are Made More Rapidly Now Than At Any Other Stage Of Life

Having babies use hearing devices within one month of identifying the need optimizes language learning opportunities. Babies learn best in a natural progression and by fitting them with devices as soon as possible, they can maintain that natural progression. Making the devices part of their daily routine before they find their ears and the devices makes the curiosity stage much easier. Babies learn through play, so playing with the devices is how they learn about them. They explore by taking the devices off, putting them into their mouths or simply tugging at them. This is a stage of development, like when they find their feet. The best course of action is to calmly put them back in. Letting them watch you put them in with a mirror can be helpful.

To reduce the risk of loss and damage during these learning explorations, bonnets, straps and clips can be very helpful. Making these retention options and the devices themselves colorful helps you locate them in the house and car. We do not suggest leaving the baby unattended with the hearing aids or without an adult in the backseat of the car.

• Hanna Andersson pilot cap – www.silkawear.com*Be aware that material over the hearing device microphones can alter sound.

Moisture Solutions:

What Causes Hearing Loss

Were not sure what causes all forms of hearing loss. Possible causes include:

Genes. Genes are parts of your bodys cells that store instructions for the way your body grows and works. Genes are passed from parents to children. Genes may play a role in about half of the cases of hearing loss in babies and children. If you or your partner has a family history of hearing loss, you may want to talk with a genetic counselor before getting pregnant. This is a person who is trained to help you understand about how genes, birth defects and other medical conditions run in families, and how they can affect your health and your babys health.

Sometimes the instructions in genes change. This is called a gene change or a mutation. Gene changes can cause two kinds of hearing loss:

Premature birth or low birthweight. Premature birth is birth that happens too early, before 37 weeks of pregnancy. Premature babies often have more health problems at birth and later in life than babies born full term. Low birthweight is when a baby is born weighing less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces. Learn more about things you can do to help reduce your risk for premature birth.

Infections your baby has after birth. Infections that can cause hearing loss include:

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Keeping The Hearing Aids On Your Baby

Its common for babies to pull at their ears and accidentally remove their hearing aids. To prevent this, you can use:

• Plastic rings that keep the hearing aids on your childs ears.
• Attach the hearing aids to their clothing via a cord with a clip.
• Use shorter ear hooks for a tighter fit.
• Use wig tape to hold the hearing aid in place.

For more information or to schedule an appointment, call San Francisco Audiology today.

Now That My Child Wears A Cochlear Implant Why Would He Need To Wear A Hearing Aid In The Non

A child who has a cochlear implant in one ear and severe hearing loss with no amplification in the other ear can only listen with one ear.

Try plugging one ear when talking to a friend in a noisy environment and youâll soon notice that it becomes difficult to understand what your friend is saying. Using two ears to listen makes it easier to listen in noisy situations, and makes it easier for you to locate where sounds come from. Your child cannot enjoy these advantages that you have when he or she listens with amplification only in one ear.

Furthermore, if your child does not make use of the residual hearing in the non-implanted ear, that ear may gradually lose its ability to analyze sounds. Without amplification, the ear is not stimulated by sounds and it wonât be able to work so well if and when your child needs to call on it in the future.

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Is There A Support Group For Parents Of Children Who Have Hearing Loss

Getting to know other parents of children who have hearing loss in your community can be very important. They know what you are going through and can provide information that will help you. Some communities have organizations that you can join to make these connections. If you are working with the state parent/infant program or with the state early intervention services, they may be able to help. Sometimes, professionals working with your child can help you make these connections. There are also many support groups and information resources available on the Internet. Many organizations have Internet discussion boards, chat rooms, email, and list serves designed for parents, siblings, and others.

What Are Hearing Aids

Hearing aids are small electronic or battery-operated devices that can amplify and change sound. They are used by people with hearing loss. A hearing aid has a microphone that receives sound and changes it into sound waves. The sound waves are then changed into electrical signals.

More than 3 million children in the U.S. have hearing loss. About 1.3 million of them are younger than age 3. More children will lose their hearing later in childhood. Hearing aids can help improve hearing and speech, especially for children with a type of hearing loss called nerve deafness . This type of hearing loss may be caused by damaged hair cells in the inner ear. Or it may be from a damaged hearing nerve. Nerve deafness can be caused by:

• Noise

• Problems with blood circulation

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How To Stop Your Hearing Aid Falling Off

You can protect your hearing aid from falling off in various ways. First, it is good to determine if that happens during a specific activity such as eating, talking or physical exercise. The hearing aid may be loose or moist and can slip out. If needed turn to your audiologist for re-adjustment. If you have a hearing aid with an individual ear mould, a new one may be needed and you should consult with a specialist for a new impression of your ear.

The problem may also be due to an old or wrong sized tubing or dome. You can easily replace these with new ones and find the most suitable size and form for your ear. Silicone domes usually have a life of about three months so it is common for them to need replacement 4-6 times a year. We provide tubes and domes for many different makes and types of hearing aid.

In addition, it is recommended that you regularly check your ears for earwax buildup as it can prevent the hearing aid fitting correctly. We have various products to help you maintain your ear hygiene.

Normalising The Hearing Device

An important part of de-sensitisation is to make the hearing device a normal part of everyday life, in the same way as a pair of shoes. You child may become more anxious about the hearing device if you bring it out, try it, then lock it away again out of sight when it is rejected.

Try to keep the hearing device nearby during the day so it becomes part of your childs everyday background. You could also try customising the hearing device with stickers ask for ideas at your next Audiology appointment.

Let your child play with the device if this feels safe. Put it on their toys or take it for a ride on a toy car or train.

If your child is happy to be touched with the device switched off, try letting them hold it switched on. Just hold it or touch it on their skin. Do not worry about them putting it in their ears or on their head, until you feel that they are ready to do so.

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How Do I Get My Baby To Leave The Hearing Aids In His/her Ears

There are many techniques that can help keep them in place or from getting lost. These include the use of hypoallergenic two-sided tape, huggie hearing aids, and critter clips. If your baby takes his/her hearing aids out, firmly place them back in his/her ears. If your baby âthrows a fitâ, wait a few minutes before trying again. The goal is to teach your baby to listen and learn new sounds wearing the hearing aids. As long as the hearing aids have been fit properly, most children will want to wear them all day as they will otherwise feel that they are missing out. If the child consistently pulls the hearing aid out, it may be worth checking with the audiologist that there is no ear infection, or a small problem with the fitting.

How Should We Care For Hearing Aids

Follow the care and cleaning instructions that came with the hearing aid. Be sure to:

• Clean off any earwax on the earmold. Wipe it off with a soft cloth or tissue or use the cleaning tool it came with. Dont wipe a hearing aid with anything rough.
• Keep the hearing aid dry.
• Check the battery with a battery tester. Replace the battery if it is running low. Store batteries in a safe place so young children cant get to them. Button batteries can cause serious injuries if swallowed.

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Hearing Aid Clips For Adults

Adult hearing aid wearers are now making the choice to wear hearing aids, but they may feel like they need to leave their hearing aids at home when they’re being active for fear of losing them outside or at the gym. In order to stay active, a hearing aid clip is a good idea to prevent losing your hearing devices.

Tips And Tricks To Encourage Your Child To Wear Hearing Aids

Very young infants spend a lot of time asleep and they will not be wearing their hearing instruments during these periods. However, as your baby grows, so does the amount of awake time where the use of hearing instruments is crucial. The initial natural reaction is quite understandably one of surprise, accompanied by a desire to remove them but as long as the hearing aids are set up appropriately with the right amount of volume and loudness then a majority of babies do not want to remove their hearing aids.

As the baby begins to associate sound with meaning, then the impulse to remove the hearing aids should decrease.In fact, the baby may sometimes cry when they are removed as they want to hear what is going on all around them!

You can start off by establishing the hearing aids as a part of the daily routine, inserting them in the morning until bedtime from day one so the child has access to speech and language at all times. All parents talk to their children during the day â saying hello, talking about all the things that are being done . Putting the hearing instruments in at the beginning of this and not at the end, allows parent and child to establish a routine that is key in enabling the child to pick up the parent’s voice. Wearing the instruments during such tender moments also can bring a positive connotation to the instruments for both parties.

If your child repeatedly rejects the amplification, you can ask your audiologist to check the following:

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How To Keep Hearing Aids On Babies

When our son Joshua was fitted with his first set of hearing aids at two months old, he initially kept them in like an angel. We were however warned that this was unlikely to last long, and true to form, one of the first games that he learnt after finding his hands was to pull his hearing aids out of his ears and throw them quite an impressive distance!

I have to admit wed lost his hearing aids on more than one occasion before this, but that was usually due to a Mummy-error rather than a Joshua-error. Ill never forget the first time I lost one of his hearing aids at the end of a baby massage class. I could say with 100% confidence that the hearing aid had fallen out within a 10 minute window but within those critical 10 minutes, the instructor had packed away all of her equipment and Id walked as far as the coffee shop next door. After two hours of intense searching, I caved in and picked up another pair of emergency hearing aids from the hospital Only to find the lost hearing aid inside his vest when later changing him for bed! After this mishap, I dont think Ive ever forgotten to check that the hearing aids are still in place whenever weve moved more than five metres!

Im overjoyed to say that weve now overcome most of these initial battles. Joshua currently wears his hearing aids with confidence as hes started to realise the benefit they bring and we finally get to see his hair!