Audiology question

aandg

Hi, I've never posted here before, and I hope its ok to ask this type of question. If not, I apologize.

My daughter recently had an OAE test done by the audiologist due to not talking a whole lot. It was found that she has some hearing loss in the high frequency range. We are still waiting to hear from the drs as to what our next steps are. There was mention of possibly needing hearing aids and a definite need for speech therapy. 

As far as I know, the next step will be an ABR test to determine how "bad" the loss is. So, my question is, does anyone have experience with this? Was your child sedated or did they fall asleep on their own? 

Also, any experience with hearing aids? I'm imagining trying to get my very active little girl who rips bows and clips out of her hair in 2 seconds flat keeping something in her ears!

Thank you for any info you can give.  

Assembly_Reqd

Based on your daughter's age she will need to be sedated. The ABR can take at minumum 45 minutes to complete I think ours was two visits that took about an hour each. The second visit the audi wanted to double check some of the findings from the first ABR. Since Nate was only 10 weeks old, he was able to just sleep in the carrier.  You daughters may be a bit longer it they want to re-run some frequencies. Also, since she is sedated, she will probably only have to go under sedation once to get all the info they need. There is an FAQ link around here that has info on sedated procedures. Some of those procedures were MRI's and Surgeries, so I am not sure how similar they will be to your procedure.

As far as hearing aids go, you really need to depend on the recommendation from your Audiologist. They will pick the model that is best suited for the type and frequencies of hearing loss your child has. It sucks that you have to trust someone else's opinion, but it is what it is. Included in the price of the aids is usually a 2 year warranty on repairs, ear mold making for the first year and the cost of the office visits to make all that happen. Audi's are not making the big bucks on pediatric aids. I think they sometimes loose money if a child has difficulty being fitted and needs multiple visits. Make sure you get a list of all that is included in the price of the aids.

Some states have a hearing aid loaner bank that you can take advantage of while you are waiting to either get insurance approval or saving up to purchase aids. Most are income based, but I would ask anyway. Our local school for the deaf will order aids at a considerable discount for their students. This discount includes children who attend their early education program and who may not be officially enrolled at the school. Our next set of aids we will probably purchase though school since it ends up being about a 30-40 percent discount.

Good Luck! 

Assembly_Reqd

We used cotton pilot caps for Nate when he started to crawl around to keep him from messing with the aids. You may want to get a lanyard and clip to keep the aids tethered to her clothes if she yanks them out. They come in fun colors and have animals for the clips.

We do not wear the aids in the car. That is just asking for trouble because when bored Nate will pull them out, unassemble and toss them across the back of the car. Our aids are very close to the color of the carpet and plastic interior, so this has made finding them challenge when i have forgotten to take them out.

Other moms with girls really bling out the aids with nail stickers or tube jewelry. You can get the aids in pink (all colors really) and you can even get fun colors for the ear molds like swirly pink and purple or clear silicone with glitter. Nate gets multi colored glitter in clear silicone. That glitter has helped me find those damn molds on more than one occasion when I used a flashlight to look for them under the seat.... 

Happy2bNappy

I would suggest you ask the audiologist if they stock the pilot caps where you can get one quickly if it turns out you need it or if you do purchase one do not open the packaging until you are sure you will need it. DS got his aids a week after his first birthday. DH and I was so worried about DS keeping them in we bought 2 pilot caps (which I later found out we could have gotten waaay cheaper). Surprisingly DS got fitted with his aids at the audiologists office, the audiologist suggested we leave them in for the car ride and take them out if there are signs that they are bothering him. DS kept them in the whole time did not even touch them and he has been great about wearing his aids ever since. He turned 3 last Fri and takes his aids out once in a while I figure because he can. 

aandg

Thank you so much for your responses! I really appreciate it.