Babies are a blessing to parents and need tender loving care in their infancy. Right after birth, babies undergo newborn screening to check for irregularities in their blood, ears and heart. If they pass the screening, well and good; if not, a trip to an infant health professional is needed.
Birth Defect
Hearing loss right at birth is considered a congenital birth defect. As such, it must be given ample priority by the parent and must be treated as early as possible. In the first years of a baby, phenomenal growth in weight and height can be witnessed.
This defect, whether at the outer, middle, or inner ear, can severely affect the baby mentally and, in the not so distant future, psychologically if delayed or remain untreated.
Effects of Hearing Loss
Absence of sound as a stimuli to a baby’s brain will give the child:
Babies with hearing loss may soon misunderstand things other people say since the child never heard it the right way. The child may also have quite a difficult time with new words along the way, more so, pronounce it correctly.
With this mental deficiency, the child might soon become a loner at school he might be talking gibberish making him a social outcast at a very young age.
Treatment to Hearing Loss
After consultations and tests of the hearing capacity of a baby, a hearing aid may be used by an infant as early a few weeks or a month after birth. This device will provide pertinent sounds to the baby’s brain so the child will connect a sound to its meaning.
Since hearing aids come in different styles, and babies are so naturally busy once they are awake and they grow fast, the best style for them would be hearing aids with earmolds that can be replaced or re-shaped as the baby grows.
Along with this, the parent must give full attention to the baby as they gradually get used to the presence of the device behind their ear(s); hearing loss may also happen in both ears.
So, hearing aids for babies and children with hearing loss are definitely beneficial where it not only treats the defect but also forms the character and personality of the child.
If you think your baby needs a hearing aid, make sure to get a hearing aid prescription. For more details of our hearing test & assessment, and hearing aid services, please contact HK Hearing & Speech Centre.
Source:
HK Hearing & Speech Centre
Specialist of Hearing test & assessment,
and Hearing Aid Prescription
https://www.hkhearingspeech.com