Hearing Loss ?

SeasideBride06

My BFF has a three year old daughter and a four month old son.  In the hospital her son failed his hearing test.  They went to an ENT at 6 weeks for another test and it came back as "inconclusive."  Today they went for yet another hearing test.  The baby was perfectly quiet and still for the whole thing, and he failed again.  The doctor seems to think there is significant hearing issues.  He will have one more test this week to determine if and how deaf he is (brain wave test, I think.)

Has anyone else gone through this?  Do you have any advice for my friend?  The doctor only told them that this is a pass or fail type of test and they have no information about what the severity could be.

TIA!

ETA:  Let me also add that my friend feels that he does hear some things.  For example, when their daughter comes into the room being very loud, the baby will jump.

Sobachka

We have, sort of. Have they done ABR? The baby may actually need to be sedated for this.

In any case, they need to do further testing to determine the cause (structural, etc) of hearing loss. They do now offer cochlear implants, and sometimes this is done before the age of 1 (here is an interesting study: https://www.thechildrenshospital.org/wellness/info/news/46277.aspx). Sometimes a surgery is required, and no implants.

My maternal aunt and her husband were both born deaf. They had 2 kids, both without any hearing problems, and had a wonderful like fogether. And this is not even in the US, but in a country that is very anti-people with disabilities.

Best of luck to your friend and hope all issues with the baby get resolved quickly and easily.

harvest-wed

hi, my kiddo doesn't have hearing loss, but I am an SLP working in early intervention and i must say that early detection of hearing loss is extremely important for speech language development.  

there are different types of loss:  Conductive - meaning the sound waves are blocked by something in the ear canal or the middle ear - most commonly fluid due to an ear infection, sometimes a bony growth in the ear canal.  Your friends baby most likely does NOT have this type of loss.  If a dr. can see the ear drum w/ their scope they don't have anything blocking the ear canal, and usually drs can see fluid if its in the middle ear.  They can get a tympanogram reading at the pedi office to determine if fluid is impacting the ability of the eardrum to properly vibrate and set off the chain of little hearing bones to stimulate the cochlea and ultimately the auditory nerve.   maybe this tympanogram is what the pedi is referring to as pass/fail?  not sure 

most more serious hearing loss cases are sensorineural, meaning something is wrong with the cochlea "the organ of hearing" or the auditory nerve to the brain.  For most kids it is not the nerve, but the cochlea.  The cochlea has tiny hair cells that get stimulated which then create an electric impulse sent to the auditory nerve.  THese hair cells can be born fragile and disintegrate over time, they can be missing or otherwise impaired. 

Different hair cells pick up/relate to different pitches or frequencies of sound. 

you can have a mild, moderate, severe or profound hearing loss.  the loss can be in one or both ears, each ear can have its own configuration of loss. 

most people hear all frequencies at a level of 15 decibels or less - so pretty quiet, like a whisper.  if you have a mild loss then some frequencies need to be at more like 20-40 db to hear it. 

Maybe only high frequency sounds need to be louder to be heard, but low frequency sounds can be heard at quieter levels - could explain why the baby hears his sisters feet bounding around the room - or he could even be feeling vibrations.  Hearing aids can usually help mild - moderate hearing loss kids pretty well. 

A cochlear implant is for kids who have an intact auditory nerve, but something wrong with the cochlea.  The device will process sound into electric impulses which then stimulate the auditory nerve.  So it doesn't restore normal hearing exactly but kids can have very good results with speech langauge development.  with all these things the earlier starting the better, you can expect a lot of pulling out of the hearing aids early on, but you have to keep on putting them back in.  The eligibility for this is usually severe-profound loss bilaterally.  So your friend's son may not "qualify" for this.

your friend's baby needs to have an ABR (auditory brainstem response) test done, like PP said they are usually sedated for this.  I have seen these with more detailed results than pass/fail though, they usually can tell you what the loss is at different frequency (pitch).

 sorry this is a novel, but I hope some of it helps!  best of luck to your BFF and her little one!  I would alse recommend early intervention for the infant.

Chrissy

SeasideBride06

harvest-wed:

your friend's baby needs to have an ABR (auditory brainstem response) test done, like PP said they are usually sedated for this.  I have seen these with more detailed results than pass/fail though, they usually can tell you what the loss is at different frequency (pitch).

 

I am pretty sure this is the test he will have this week.  I know they are putting him to sleep and that it does test his brain waves or something.

Thanks for your responses!

jptimestwo

My younger son failed his hearing screen at the hospital.  We went to an audiologist twice....he has minor conductive hearing loss in both ears.  He had an ABR both times at the audiologist.  Immeadiately after the test the audiologist was able to give us that "diagnosis."  We will end up at an ENT for more testing but it's my understanding that the ENT needs the ABR results to know where to start from.  I also learned that the tests given at the hospital or in the doctor's office are inaccurate more times then not.  My son did NOT need to be sedated either of the times he went.....he was young enough to sleep through, but the older they get, the more likely they will need something to help them sleep.

Emerson2007

My son who is now almost 3 was born with a hearing loss. She can msg or have my email if she wants. There can be so many questions that she might have. It really depends on his loss as to what sounds he may hear. My son was in a hearing aid by 4 months. The earlier the better for speech and language development. Hearing aids and cochlear implants can do wonders. My son speaks very well for his age and I credit all of his speech therapy and hearing aids starting so young. One way to look at hearing loss is like a loud tv blaring in the next room at a hotel. You can hear the noise, but can't quite tell what they are saying. It's kind of blurry, if that makes sense. There is so much help, but he first needs an ABR. We had at least 2 or 3 of these and one of them he was sedated. One is usually general and another is more specific. Also, they will probably do a CAT scan or something to make sure the bones in the ear and the brain looks normal (no tumors), this is usually routine. Also, so hearing loss can be caused by fluid. They might do a genetic test down the road as well. If he does have a loss, the ENT will probably rec. speech therapy and he will have some type of booth test every 3-6 months. He may get a loaner hearing aid while waiting his pair, or a rec. for cochlear implants. She could probably also sign up for EI or any federal  or state programs that he qualifies for. First, she has to know what his loss is. It can be very confusing, but please msg me if she wants to talk or email me.

Texas Couple

I've been through it all recently. My son failed his newborn hearing test at the hospital. He was later diagnosed with a profound hearing loss. He wore hearing aids from 3mo -9mo then he received cochlear implants at 9.5 mo and he's doing great. He is now beginning to hear.  ABRs nd OAE tests should be able to make a diagnosis for hearing loss. Although it is hard to test in children so don't be surprised if lots and lots of tests are done.  I have a blog and it has lots of other blogs with parents going through the same thing. Reading these blogs helped me out so much and are the reason my son is doing so well today. Good luck!!

JenPVH

SeasideBride06:

ETA:  Let me also add that my friend feels that he does hear some things.  For example, when their daughter comes into the room being very loud, the baby will jump.

 

First, I want to say that I hope the hearing loss is not severe and that I wish the best.  But if it is severe, I just wanted to share my 2 cents.

I am deaf myself.  If the child is indeed severe with hearing loss, it is very likely the child is feeling the thumping on the floor making it seem like he is hearing since they have heighten sense of feeling.  I use shadows, mirrors, window reflection to lead myself to being aware what is going on around me.  If someone clapped behind me, I can feel the 'wind" from the hand movements.

There is a lot of technology and support out there for the deaf.  While it won't restore the severe hearing loss (rather help improve some), they can have a full life.  The best thing the parents can do for a deaf child is to bond with the child while accepting the hearing loss for what it is instead of being so tough on "polishing" the kid to ?appear? hearing out of fear of the child not seeming normal.  If communication can happen in the form where the child has complete understanding of what is being communicated instead of guessing or only getting partial information, the happier and closer the bond the child will have with his/her parents.  There will be struggles and it is different but it can be overcome.

 

Emerson2007

JenPVH: thank you for your insight on hearing. It's always nice to hear info from adults to try to explain how they hear, since my 3 yr old will have a while before he can tell us. We were always amazed when he would hear the garage door open from many rooms away and we always suspected he felt the vibrations.