Moderate Sensori-neural deafness and DLA

[Ju_bubbs]

I feel a bit silly posting in here, coz a bit of hearing loss is nothing compared to some of the things a lot of your LO's have to deal with, but I didn't know where else to put it!

Basically my LO has moderate sensori-neural deafness in her left ear, I'm seeing a specialist this month to discuss looking into why, as there is no family history and there were no problems during pregnancy/birth! But anyway the auditory department put me in contact with NDCS who have said that I should make a claim for the care compnent of DLA for LO once she is 3 months old. They said I would have to write down things that I have to do for her that I wouldn't do for a baby with normal hearing, but I really don't know what I would write, at 3 months old is there really anything I do differently for her?

I have to pick her up to settle her if she wakes, coz talking/singing to her has no effect - I'm not sure if thats because she can't hear it enough for it to work, but tbh, I'd probably still pick her up to settle her anyway, kwim?

So I guess what I'm after is other mums who have young babies with hearing loss, do you claim DLA, what did you put on the forms etc?

 

[Marleysgirl]

Hello!

Andrew has sensori-neural hearing loss (auditory nerve spectrum disorder), and we were awarded midlde-rate care of DLA.

I did some digging on the NCDS and the RNID websites, I think it was the RNID site that was best as it had ideas on what to put on the DLA claim form. We basically said that that as Andrew developed, he wouldn't be able to hear our voices; as he started becoming mobile, he wouldn't be able to heed our vocal warnings; and therefore we would have to spend much more time with him on a one-to-one basis, we'd have to buy light-based toys rather than sound-based, we'd have to attend specific baby groups.

To be honest, we were pleasantly surprised with the award, which is valid until he is 3 years old. It has enabled us to claim Carers Allowance and for one of us to be a stay-at-home parent rather than both of us working.

If you want to chat more about the testing, hearing aids, baby signing - I'd be happy to stay in touch with you. Andrew was born 11 weeks premature with a cranial bleed; his deafness is attributed to either prematurity or birth trauma. He also has some developmental delay due to the prematurity and subsequent epilepsy. But if deafness turns out to be his only long-term problem then, as you say, it's nothing compared to the problems some babies unfortunately have.