Hearing Aids

[aligreat]

Someone posted this question on the Yahoo group, but since I had the same question I wanted to find out from this group too. My little one (21 months) will not leave her hearing aid in her ear. She (perhaps with help from her twin sister) gets it out within minutes. We have tried using a huggie band around the aid, teathering it to her shirt, taping it with wig tape, and putting a hat or headband on over her aid. So far nothing has worked--not even showing her how much fun it is to hear the music on ST and BST! We usually only have her wear it when both parents are around and one is holding her. When we have story time I have a picture book and toys that are in the book (3D bear, ball, bike, etc), and then I sign and say each item while pointing to the picture and the item. This works well, but we really would like her to wear it more given the brain development that is taking place at this time in her life. Any other ideas? Thanks!!

[MmaBasotho]

We use a lot of music and dancing to make hearing fun for my daughter, also 21-almost-22 months old. She loves music, so we put something on with a good beat and dance to it. This is always a hit with her.

I know that our DTH had a number of suggestions on helping her get used to the aids (which she's had for about 2.5 weeks). Do you have a DTH who might come and help? Hope this helps :)

[aligreat]

What is a DTH? If it is a deaf educator, yes we have one. She made some of the suggestions we have tried. Dancing wouldn't work well with Cassia because she tends to sit down if we try to do anything like that, but she loves to bounce on the mini trampoline on her bottom. Maybe we could do that to music. Thanks for the idea. :)

[lletiecq]

One thing we have done is just make it the "rule" that her aids are always in her ears. If that means I have to put them back on several times in a few minutes, I do it. (Of course, Marian is just shy of a year old, so it may get more difficult any time now.) The only time we have them off is when she is in bed, in the bath, or in the car. In the car is a new one and we don't always have to have them out in the car; it just depends on her mood.

We do use the Hanna Andersson pilot caps, which our audiologist recommended. In addition, I crocheted a string of embroidery floss that I attach to each hearing aid and string through the tag of the hat. That way if she just takes them off, they don't go too far. Of course, with teething they don't go much farther than her mouth....

I am trying to look at taking out hearing aids as being similar to eating books or any of the other things I am trying to teach Marian not to do. I just tell her no or stop and matter of factly stop her from doing it, over and over and over again.

Laura in Manassas, VA

[JuliaBakerJones]

I have had the same problem. My son is 22 months old and it is near impossible for us to get him to keep his aids in at home. However, he recently started a new daycare and he keeps them in all the time. He asks for them when he gets up from nap. He tells the teachers if the batteries are not right. . . and as soon as we get there to pick him up, he pulls them out. I have tried setting rules. We have used wig tape, huggie clips, hats, and all methods of "rules" which have NEVER worked. The rules always result in us spending every moment putting them in, taking them out, putting them in, taking them out.

At this point in time I have decided that communication is the most important thing. We sign, we talk, we sing and we understand eachother. Perhaps his time without the aids will enable him to function better in situations where technology fails him. I am looking forward to him getting older so that I can have a better sense of what he really hears and what he doesn't. (According to ABRs he has a mild to severe sloping loss in one ear and mild to moderate in the other).

I am trying to go with the flow.

Julia

[MmaBasotho]

My son is 22 months old and it is near impossible for us to get him to keep his aids in at home.
<snip>
At this point in time I have decided that communication is the most important thing. We sign, we talk, we sing and we understand eachother. Perhaps his time without the aids will enable him to function better in situations where technology fails him.
<snip>
I am trying to go with the flow.

My daughter is 22 mo, too! She is okay with her hearing aids a lot of the time, but I never know when she's going to take them out. Sometimes she decides she doesn't want them in for the rest of the day, no matter what I try. Since she has only had them for about a month, it's all still pretty new. I'm trying not to let it become a battle of wills.

But I agree about going with the flow. Paula's hearing loss is in the severe (or moderate-to-severe, depending on who you ask) range, so without them she really can't hear anything useful. So signing is essential because she's not always going to have her hearing aids in, and frankly I don't know what her relationship with speaking and listening is going to be. So I try to make listening fun, but we rely on signing for communication.

[MomofJBN]

(According to ABRs he has a mild to severe sloping loss in one ear and mild to moderate in the other).

My son Jonathan has similar loss (mild to sloping to moderate in both ears), and he does basically the same thing. He wears them willingly to school, but rips them out the instant he gets home. Fortunatley, he's old enough that I feel it's OK for him to make that decision.

Sounds like both are sons are just done with HAs after school and able to get along just fine at home w/out them.

[aligreat]

With your encouragement and support I have been sending Cassia off to her playgroup/school with her hearing aid. It is a program for deaf children, and so they are used to watching for hearing aids. I decided to view it as I would one of her shoes. I'm not going to keep her from wearing shoes just because she takes them off whenever she gets half a chance. (But then again I buy her shoes at either Walmart or Payless, so that I don't care if she loses one.)

Cassia's loss is severe to profound in both ears. She only has one hearing aid because one of her ears has too great of a loss for an aid to be beneficial. We use sign at home and at school. Even before we knew about her hearing loss her pulmonologist said that we would need to sign with her as her speech would be delayed. With such a great hearing loss speech will be even more difficult for her. Hopefully the hearing aid will help her enough so that she can learn to vocalize some, but if she doesn't I'm so glad that we have sign in our lives. I'm especially glad that so many others have signing in their lives so that Cassia will have even more friends she can play with and talk to. :)

[MmaBasotho]

Paula has really deteriorated with her aids in the last two weeks, taking them out a LOT and not responding when I spoke to her when she had them in. She had stopped shrieking so much in the first couple of weeks with the aids, but then she started up again just as I got used to it being a little quieter around here :p

I took her to the audi last week and she did a tympanogram, told me Paula had negative middle-ear pressure. The ENT we saw on Friday said this indicates a problem with the eustachian tubes draining correctly, and it can make Paula's ears uncomfortable and make hearing more difficult. So Paula's going to get tubes in her ears next month.

A lot of kids already have these, but if you haven't checked out this route, it might be worth investigating.

As a side note, I realized that about the time Paula started taking her aids out a lot and not seeming to hear so well with them, I had stopped massaging her outer ears and eustachian tubes with this essential oil a friend gave me. It's called Helichrysm and is supposed to support the auditory nerve. Anyway, probably the daily massage kept the eustachian tubes draining well. Since I started doing it again, Paula is hearing better. That might be worth a try, too.

:)

[aligreat]

[QUOTE=MmaBasotho]Paula has really deteriorated with her aids in the last two weeks, taking them out a LOT and not responding when I spoke to her when she had them in. She had stopped shrieking so much in the first couple of weeks with the aids, but then she started up again just as I got used to it being a little quieter around here :p


Cassia actually cries louder when she has her hearing aid in. She can hear that it makes more noise, I suppose.