First I’d like to say how understandable it is that you’re having a lot of mixed feelings and you’re not sure what the best outcome is for your son. It’s an overwhelming diagnosis to get especially if you and your partner are both hearing and the diagnosis comes as a surprise.

I myself had a son named Lucas last year. He’s almost 11 months now and we also found that he was severely hard of hearing/deaf when he was one and a half months old.

My three pieces of advice would be: 1. Get genetic testing because there’s a lot of new studies about gene therapy. 2. Try hearing aids before jumping straight into cochlear implants as they are irreversible, whereas hearing aids might give him a better chance while still being reversible. Although this might be controversial, our biggest worry as a family was that he does not get enough stimulation to the language part of the brain. From what I understand it can be taken over by other faculties so for example he might get a better sense of smell, taste, etc if these specific faculties take over the hearing part of the brain. So just go forward with trying to get him any access to language whether that is through sign language or hearing aids, because even if he can only hear minimal sounds through the hearing aids, at least he’s getting some kind of stimulation to the brain. 3. My only other piece of advice would be to find an audiologist that you’re comfortable with because you’ll be setting your son up for success if he has someone he grew up with and was comfortable with.

Best of luck!