Low frequency hearing loss

[CarlyP]

Hello.

My baby failed his newborn hearing test, they said it was more then likely because he was 4 weeks early and a c section so would of had mucus left etc. We were sent to the hospital for a more detailed test, it was difficult because he had to be asleep for it. They managed to get the low frequency sounds OK but they couldn't pick up the high frequency sounds, so they're saying it's possible he can't hear lower then 45 decibels. So sounds like birds, whispers, and many word sounds such as sh, th etc. They want us to go back on the 21st January for anot her try because he was unsettled so it was difficult. They said the worse case scenario is that he will need a hearing aid, otherwise he will have speech and language issues. I can't find anything online about this apart from school age children and I was just hoping someone might of been through the same thing. He is 12 weeks old by the way, I need to change my ticker.

 

[Eleanor ace]

Hi, my son (5.5) has moderate hearing loss, my DD1 (3.5) has mild loss and glue ear which she has grommets for (DS has a bit of glue ear but doesn't have grommets). DS's wasn't picked up until he was about 4 but I could tell when he was a toddler that he couldn't hear properly, he had problems with speech and was a bit delayed. I asked for him to get a referral to audiology and that's when it was picked up. We declined grommets as his glue ear isn't bad, we're waiting for a referral to see whether he's getting hearing aids. As a baby he didn't have any problems stemming from the hearing issues. He struggled somewhat as a toddler, mainly with learning to talk and not being able to hear and repeat words properly which caused a fair bit of frustration for him at the time but wasn't a major issue. Now he's at school we see the impact more, things like he needs to sit where he can see the teacher so he can lip read as background noise makes it harder for him to hear, his writing is effected as he can't distinguish sounds like f/th/sh/ch etc very well, the way he hears words is not how they are, his concentration can suffer as he has to focus on concentrating because its easy to just tune out instead of picking out voices to focus on. But for the most part he is fine, he works hard and it will get better as he gets older and gets used to filtering sounds.

Like your LO, DD1 failed her newborn hearing tests several times, then was referred for a more sensitive test and was getting flat lines which was very worrying. She eventually passed in one ear and then the other which was a big relief! Because of that and DS's hearing loss I asked for her to get a hearing test when she turned 3, her speech and everything were on track (in fact she has always scored ahead for communication at her checks) so there wasn't actually any indication that she had problems, other than repeat ear infections. Her initial hearing test gave worse results than DS's, they said we were looking at hearing aids and that she wasn't really hearing much. She mush have had fluid on her ears because when we went back for her next appointment her results were a lot better and we were able to just go with the grommets. She had them fitted a couple of months ago and they did make a big difference, she spent a few days getting used to how loud everything is and then got excited every time we went out, saying "I can hear the birds! They're singing for me!" and stuff . We're waiting on a post-op hearing test but I would be very very surprised if they recommended hearing aids now. She has no problem hearing low frequency sounds now and her enunciation is noticeably clearer.

 

[Eleanor ace]

^ Sorry for the wall of text! I'm not sure whether that is any use to you, if you have any questions let me know, I too found it hard to find people who had had the same experience and just wanted to know what might happen.

 

[CarlyP]

Thank you for your reply. We go back on the 21st and it seems like such a long wait. I think because he's 12 weeks it's impossible to tell if he can hear us whispering.

What are grommets? He passed the glue ear test, they said they got 2 perfect peaks. Is that related?

Those hearing tests are so hard to understand as well, he was getting lines that were matching for low frequency but once they started to get to 30/25/20 decibels that's when it wouldn't pick up, but in his defense he had been laid asleep for almost 2 hours and was quite fidgety by that stage, so I'm hoping we can settle him well again and they start with the high frequency straight away.

I know it's better to pick it up young as then hopefully he won't struggle at school.

The other factor against him is that he got bacterial meningitis at 18 days old, which can damage hearing.

Bless your little girl, I bet that was lovely for her. I hope your son can get the aids, it's hard enough to concentrateat school without working extra hard as well.