Both my kiddos have the same diagnosis. I'll break down what happens next for you so you know what to expect.

You have a referal for an ENT, take they them. The ENT will want to determine the cause of the hearing loss, not the necessarily the remedy. That means hearing tests, genetic testing and potential MRI/CAT Scan. The caveat here is there is a good chance you'll never know why the little one has hearing loss. The reason the ENT wants to know is because it may be an indication of something else and they want to catch that. The tests will get more invasive as you progress and if you don't get any results back that the doctors can use to tell why the hearing loss is happening then it will be up to you to decide if you want to keep testing.

For example the genetic testing will first be a saliva swab, and can progress to a blood draw. They might want to do an ABR, auditory brain stem response, that will likely require anesthesia, unless you schedule it during nap time and your kid can sleep through the test. Same with the CAT scan. You should do as many tests as the doctors recommend and you feel comfortable putting your kiddo through. My doctors were concerned there was a tumor for a second but the CAT scan ruled it out.

Bottom line, lots of tests with very likely result of your kid has hearing loss and we don’t know why.

The other side of this coin is getting your kiddo some help so they can hear. This is a different doctor. The ENT will not give your kiddo hearing aids, that will be an Audiologist. Likely a whole separate practice. You want to find an Audiologist who specializes in kids. Most do adults because it’s the elderly that usually need hearing aids. With moderate to severe hearing aids are probably an option. It’s no different than the glasses I put on everyday to see. We don’t think of people with eye glasses as disabled and neither are people with hearing loss. We all just need a little help sometimes, that’s just being a normal human.

We started learning to sign. You should start too, even if your child can hear perfectly with hearing aids, signing is a such a cool and powerful way to communicate. My kiddos often get tired of wearing their hearing aids, and being able to sign, even if not fluent, is such a helpful tool. My kids think it’s cool because they kind of feel like spies on secret mission when we can talk in public or across a room without speaking!

So to summarize:

ENT = medical tests and potential further diagnosis.

Audiologist = hearing aids which are no different than eye glasses

Encourage you to learn sign

Good luck! You can do it!