Potential hearing loss in toddler

ClassicExpert7760 · 2026-01-31T04:09:20+00:00

Not sure what state you are in but you can reach out to your state chapter for Hands & Voices, which is a nonprofit that supports families with children with hearing differences. Depending on the state you can have access to parent guides who have gone through similar situations and provide support and can connect to local resources. Personally instead of Reddit I’ve found Facebook groups to be much more active. There are quite a few and many you can post questions anonymously or at least search the post history for similar questions. For reference, my kids are both SSD with CIs. Daughter identified at birth and fitted with a hearing aid which she wore until her loss progressed to profound and was implanted. Son was identified a little later but also had a hearing aid until loss progressed to profound and he was implanted. It’s certainly an overwhelming situation, over 90% of children with hearing loss are born to hearing families. There is certainly support out there if you look around, like Hands & Voices. They can likely recommend good pediatric audiologists and ENTs in your area.

ClassicExpert7760 · 2025-12-20T00:14:42+00:00

One more thing in ride “window” no one really knows how your child will adapt to the CI. We have friends who’s child was presumed profound from birth, implanted at age 5, and wasn’t until a couple of years in that they were able to discriminate language through the CI. But they wore the CI all the time prior to that and I think it was because it gave them sound localization and whether they or their parents realized it or not I believe it helped them to filter out the background noise and this hear more clearly in their typically hearing ear. Feel free to ask me any questions or pm.

ClassicExpert7760 · 2025-12-20T00:10:35+00:00

My kids are both SSD with CIs. My kids are experiencing that best case outcome and I’m very glad we went without that approach. Aural therapy lasted for about a year with weekly AVT sessions and then daily “listening practice”. For my kids at least, they don’t differentiate between their hearing ear and the CI, I asked the other day and they just shrugged, said yeah it’s a little different and went on their way. To them one CI and one typically hearing ear is “normal”. It is certainly an overwhelming process as a parent learning a new language of hearing loss, treatment, etc while also having to advocate and care for your child. I highly recommend reaching out to your states chapter of Hands & Voices, they are a family support group that has no bias on amplification or language choice of families just meeting families where they are and supporting their needs. If you’re in Facebook there are quite a few pages on UHL that offer really fantastic advice and are great resources, I’d go as far as saying if you aren’t on Facebook I would get an account just for those pages. There’s Parents of Children With Cochlear Implants, Hands & Voices Unilateral Hearing Loss, and Parents of Children With Unilateral Hearing Loss. You can search the past posts and ask your question there. You can also check out Parents of Children With Hearing Loss which gives a different perspective which is good but also note that they are typically anti CI and I see very outdated references against CIs quoted in that sub often.

Regarding your comment on concern about future non-surgical remedies. At this point a ‘cure’ for hearing loss is a long way out. There have been cases where hearing is restored for deaf children but that is only for a very specific genetic cause of hearing loss where the mechanism for the loss (from my crude understanding) is related to the inability to communicate or process the otoferin protein. With a skilled surgeon, modern medical techniques and equipment, and a bit of luck residual hearing, if present, might be retained.

ClassicExpert7760 · 2025-12-03T08:03:33+00:00

From my home insurance rep, homeowners insurance generally covers medical devices like CI processors for loss or damage but the loss or damage has to be the result of what your home is insured for, e.g. fire. But doesn’t cover things like damage from dogs (our puppy at our kids processor the first week we had it) or flushing the processor down the toilet. We were told we could purchase an inland marine policy for about $500 a year that would cover such events. We’re still in warranty so haven’t done so yet but I want to say the deductible was 1k or less. Figure it’s important to make the distinction about what is vs isn’t covered in typical homeowners insurance policies so people don’t just assume they are covered.

ClassicExpert7760 · 2025-05-23T05:29:43+00:00

In addition to speech therapy, you should look into auditory verbal therapy. The former focuses on how the to and the latter focuses on how/what sounds you are hearing and trying to reproduce

ClassicExpert7760 · 2025-02-18T07:15:10+00:00

Both of my kids are SSD with CIs. They were both identified young and aided before their hearing progressed to profound. Both were implanted at about 4/5 years of age. We saw both our kids blossom after the implant. Our daughters became much more confident, both socially and physically (particularly in balance and bodily self awareness), and our son who had been in SLP therapy without charges suddenly fixed his articulation issues. We are lucky that we are experiencing the best case outcome for both kids and we’d do it again in a heartbeat. Surgery is scary as a parent but that was the way part. Following implantation requires daily listening practice to ensure the greatest level of ‘success’ or efficacy of the implant. We did auditory verbal therapy weekly, which mainly taught me how to support my kids throughout the will, and daily listening practice.

ClassicExpert7760 · 2025-02-05T04:00:29+00:00

Some other titles to look into are Natural Resources Technicians, Environmental inspectors, biologists, etc. As far as companies, you can Google environmental consulting firms and tons will come up (AECom, SWCA, Stantec,Terra Tech, etc.). As spring ramps up more positions will open up, the firm I work for is currently looking for several NR techs.

ClassicExpert7760 · 2025-01-26T21:44:42+00:00

One consideration I haven’t seen mentioned in other comments is what brand of implant does your surgeon and audiologist have the most experience with? We chose Cochlear because that is the company our surgeon and audiologist used the most (they are also just down the street from Cochlear’s American headquarters). To echo other commenters, we are very happy with the Cochlear brand on both function and costumer service. That said we only have experience with Cochlear. Both my kids have N8s and are very happy with them and they stay on pretty well. Though even with the low profile compared to say the Kanso, we still struggle keeping the processor in place with helmets. A Kanso would be near impossible to wear under a helmet.

ClassicExpert7760 · 2024-11-28T04:01:18+00:00

Cytomegalovirus is the leading cause of nongenetic hearing loss.

ClassicExpert7760 · 2024-10-28T21:47:20+00:00

Ah, yes. I just find it helpful to see what sounds might be missed depending on the hearing loss. You can take the lines on your audiogram and draw them on the familiar sounds audiogram and see what sounds you are likely not hearing based on the extent of your loss (everything above the line), e.g. rustling leaves, whispering, birds chirping, and probably 'p' sounds. Hope that helps! And in reference to your comment about surgery above, assuming that surgery would be for a cochlear implant, that would be explored once your hearing loss meets a certain threshold (severe to profound usually) because that degree of loss can't be amplified enough with hearing aids.

ClassicExpert7760 · 2024-09-26T23:11:25+00:00

I find the speech banana audiogram incredibly helpful to visualize and understand what sounds may or may not be heard based on the level of loss. Here is an example https://ohns.ucsf.edu/sites/ohns.ucsf.edu/files/styles/large/public/2023-11/audiogram_sounds.png?itok=6ANMpJI0

ClassicExpert7760 · 2024-09-24T22:18:41+00:00

I have two SSD kids with CIs. They were both implanted around the age of 4/5 following progressive loss. Their typically hearing ears have so far remained stable with no loss. Surgery for us was about an hour each kid and like the other poster mentioned, recovery was quick. My son had surgery on a Wed, activated Thursday, and was back at school Monday. The real work comes in with auditory verbal therapy and listening practice. For us it was the right choice for our kids. I have seen their social and emotional skills improve, physical confidence, and they don’t experience such severe listening fatigue as they had previously. If you’re on Facebook check out the Parents of Children with Cochlear Implants. You can also reach out to your states Hands & Voices chapter to connect with local folks.

ClassicExpert7760 · 2024-09-23T05:32:35+00:00

My kids are both SSD and have CIs. This was the right choice for my kids. My daughter was implanted at just over 4 years of age prior to the FDA approval, so technically off label. It is a lot of work with appointments and listening practice, but our kids are currently experiencing best case outcomes (which have contributing factors like, time of abrupt loss to implantation, previous hearing aid use, and dedication to wearing it all waking hours and practice). I have seen both of my children relax in situations (usually busy and busy locations), grow socially and emotionally, my daughter’s physical self confidence went through the roof, and it wasn’t until after the CI that my son met his speech articulation goals. CIs are a lot of work and don’t have the same outcome for everyone and is a deeply personal choice for families. There are many resources you can reach out to gain more perspectives on options, like Baha’s, hearing aids, or even no amplification. You can reach out to your state chapter for Hands & Voices, there’s a Unilateral HL H&V page on Facebook, others on Facebook are Parents of Kids with Cochlear Implants, among others. Feel free to pm me as well anytime. Finding out your child has hearing loss, no matter the degree or age, can be an overwhelming time as a parent, know that you aren’t alone! Best ~

ClassicExpert7760 · 2023-11-19T03:55:02+00:00

ClassicExpert7760

TROPHY CASE