Among all the issues mother’s have to worry about today from the ongoing pandemic and ways to improve your child’s overall well-being to preparing for school and overall safety, it could be very easy to forget about an often overlooked but critical aspect of holistic healthcare that being, “hearing health”.

We can forget about how important good ear health practices could be because we tend to think of this as a problem that we’ll only have to face as and when we get older.  However, as research suggests, it is never too early to start a “best practice” training method for all of our children which will go a long way to minimize this risk before it becomes a problem later on.

SIGNS TO LOOK OUT FOR IN NEWBORNS AND TODDLERS

You could be quite surprised by how easy it is to look for signs that may indicate your newborn is experiencing difficulties with hearing.  That’s part of the problem.  Some of the symptoms are so “obvious” that they can oftentimes go undetected for a while, but here are a few that you could spot quite easily.

Most newborn infants will jump or be startled at a loud noise or sudden increase in the volume around them.  If there is a prolonged lack of responsiveness, then it’s worth looking into further.

• At around 3 months, your baby should be able to start recognising your and your partners’ voice.  A bemused or confused look when talking to your baby might be a sign that they’re not quite absorbing and recognising as much of your “sound” as they should be.
• At 6 months, your baby should be able to turn their head or eyes towards noise or sound, and
• By 12 months they should also be able to imitate a few sounds and some words like “mamma”, “pappa” or “bye-bye”.

 

Remember that newborn screening could identify most issues with hearing loss and the sooner you do this, the better.

As your newborn turns into a toddler, any signs that you might have missed (or that they presented with a little later), will become easier to notice and identify.  Some things to look out for include:

Speech difficulties that could be limited, poor or none at all.Toddlers that are frequently inattentive (not to be confused with those daydreamer).

Learning challenges.

Needing a higher TV or music volume.

They might not always respond to their name being called or show an increased amount of frustration towards excessive background or environmental noise.

 

Good hearing is very important to your child’s development and impacts cognitive as well as emotional and social growth.  So it’s a good idea to have your baby screened as early as possible and the good news is that the earlier you have it done, the more options you have at your disposal to render treatment more effective.  You can have your baby screened from as young as 3 months old.  There is so much more to be found on diagnosing and caring for your children’s ear health so make use of the resources available to you. You’ll be so glad that you did.

CAUSES OF HEARING LOSS IN NEWBORNS

There are so many different reasons as to why your baby could have been born with hearing loss issues or experience them later on.  As always, knowledge is power and having a good understanding of the holistic issues that may surround your baby’s ear health is really important.  Here are a few to look out for:

Premature birth.

• If your baby had jaundice and required a blood transfusion.
• Did your baby require medication that might have hearing loss as a side effect?
• Do other members of your family have a history of newborn hearing loss?
• Did your baby suffer from infections such as meningitis or cytomegalovirus?

 

You can discuss all of your concerns with your GP of course, and have them provide you with a referral to a screening centre if you’re concerned.

TAKING CARE, OF TEENAGE EARS

Most people stop growing at around 20 years of age so this leaves ample time for some horrid damage to be done to still growing teenage ears.  But, did you know that you can still be a great parent without cramping your teens’ style?  Here’s how.

Education, education, education.  Teaching your teens about the potential dangers of the prolonged use of earphones will probably have the desired effect when you tell them that research suggests that the number of bacteria produced in your ear increases by a whopping 700%, just by wearing headphones.

 This number increased during hot and sweaty summer months. (That should do it!) 

The World Health Organisation says that 1.1 BILLION teenagers across the world are at risk of serious ear damage due to prolonged use of earphones and in-ear devices.  They suggest adhering to the 60/60 rule, this means not utilising more than 60% of the devices volume level, for no more than 60 minutes a day.

It may not seem cool, but encouraging the use of earplugs for live music events is really good advice.  It takes your ears an average of 16 hours to recover from a night out and even just taking a few 5-minute breaks throughout the night, will give your socially mobile teenagers ears some good resting and downtime before the action starts all over again.

OVERALL AND ONGOING GOOD EAR-HEALTH HABITS

There is a very interesting article here about the dangers of untreated hearing loss and this will help you cast an eye towards older members of your family, who may be at risk of untreated hearing loss.

It turns out that there are all sorts of ways that we can promote healthy ear health and in some cases even improve the quality of our hearing – no matter what our age.

While our ears hear the sound, it’s our brains’ job to interpret those sounds and if you regularly practice exercises that strengthen your brains’ hearing and comprehension skills, you may just make yourself a better listener.  Going for walks in a forest or the woods, at the ocean or in the bush, will give your ears endless material to listen out for. 

Folic acid, Magnesium, Zinc and “B” Vitamins all work together to maintain good hearing health from ensuring the regulation of fluid levels and optimum oxygen usage, to promoting circulation to your ears besides.

So the general message is that it’s never too early to start practising good ear-healthcare and to keep an eye out for potential issues.  It’s also a good idea to have your kids’ ears tested at different phases of their development as there is a range of different factors which occur at different stages of their lives, that may all have an impact on their hearing.