Okay, I am taking it to the people.... How do you keep the hearing aids in a 10 month old? What about while driving by yourself in the car? Do you even try? I put them in and she takes them out at least once before we even leave the driveway. When we received them yesterday they told us the left earmold may need to be re-done and we may get a lot of feedback. We do, so do I continue putting that hearing aid on? Has anyone had this problem? Are we sure all of this poking and prodding isn't hurting?
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.
16 comments:
The feedback could hurt her hearing even more and will be very unpleasant for her. You don't want to associate that unpleasant sound with her hearing ais. Make sure they get that earmold right! :-)
I don't have any advice for how to keep them on, but I'm sure you'll get several hints from other parents. I'm late-deafened.
My son doesn't have his aids yet, but I was told the magic secret was pilot caps from Hanna Andersson
http://www.hannaandersson.com/
Ahh... the lovely stage of aids-as-teething-rings. I know it, and live it! Nolan is (almost) 11 months old and has had his aids for nearly 7 months now. We used pilot caps in the beginning, but have stopped due to the HOT weather! We take them off in the car, and our audiologist is totally on board with that. Every time he takes them out, we just put them back in again. Eventually he gives up and leaves them alone for a while. We've had an entire week now where he has left them in. I've heard that for early-aided babies, they start to leave them alone by 14 or 15 months of age.
I have a few pilot caps left if you want to try one. They are great, particularly in the winter. In the summer, they can be hot, of course!
Otoferm is a great tool for minimizing squealing. It is a gunky stuff that comes in a tube and helps seal it. It can help when the earmolds are getting to be too small, etc.
I'm not sure what your daughter's audiogram is, or where she is in her candidacy, but CIs make your life much easier than hearing aids, plus the progress is faster for the severe to profound! No squealing! And obvious ability to hear! My boys were both implanted in infancy (the youngest at 6 months of age) and it was SO great to be finished with hearing aids. :-) Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
I wanted to leave a note... maybe you can tape her fingers, or put headphones over her head- that way if she pulls on something it would be the headphones and not the hearing aids. Maybe you can do both... tape and headphones :) Or give her a toy to play with while driving.
But what do I know. Other parents going through the same thing w/ their kids will have the advice you need! MISS YOU. And good luck!!
Just incase some one reads my message written above.... I am TOTALLY kidding! Just wanted to make sure everyone knew that
well- depends on how long the drive. DS is 7 right now (almost 8) so it has been a long time but as I remember..i just took them out.
Hi,
I put aids for my daughter when she was 9 months old and I got her used to it within few days.They tend to throw it out as they are happy in their silent world.Make it pleasurable for her by making her hear all different sounds and voices around her.While talking talk to her in a pleasurable pleasent tone , modulate your voice.I feel the more you involve them in your conversation the more they enjoy listening.Praise works well and the moment she takes them out a bit of threat does not harm.I used to tell her that ..Since you dont want them I will throw them and kept them away.I carried on with my lovely talks with facial expression which she saw and felt something missing.She wanted aids to get involved and hear! mission accomplished in 3-4 such actings!try I have mentioned such thinks in my blog .see if they help.
rouchi
impemp.blogspot.com
impaired but empowered
We swore by the pilot caps for awhile, until Christian learned how to get them off his head :) We sometimes took them out in the car, especially on his bad days. It does get better, I promise! Regarding the feedback, as most Moms of D/HOH kiddos will let you know, we've all had our fair share of bum earmolds. Just go back, get them remade and demand them expedited!
Tina
www.livelaughlovefamily.blogspot.com
I just leave them off when we're in the car, especially since Aiden's started taking his off too! The feedback can get crazy and I feel like I'm constantly poking them into his ears, which doesn't seem to bother him one bit. I get new earmolds everytime I'm by the audi, just because I know they can take awhile to get. I hear the pilot hats are great or have you tried bonnets (with this hot Texas weather, it may be cooler for her). Good luck! Oh yeah ... and Otoferm is great to help stop the buzzing - I layer it on pretty good, you just have to be careful to keep the molds cleaned out.
As a pragmatic mom, I cope with irritating habits like taking off aids and shoes in the car by leaving them off while in the car and putting them on only when parking and taking the kids out.
Remembering my own hearing aid days as a child, I usually turned them off when in cars as the amplified noise was extremely bothersome. This may be the problem for your kids, too.
After Li-Li bit (!) off and swallowed the ear mold for her processor before I could pull over a few weeks back, we've decided that one-handed signing and no CI in the car is the way to go for a while. She's absolutely fine with her processor elsewhere, but between the wings of her carseat and the background noise, she's usually "all done!" with the processor within a few miles, and things she's "all done!" with can end up pretty much anywhere.
It's too bad, because our hour-long ride to her school is such a great opportunity to do a lot of talking back and forth, but as dianrez mentioned, I suspected the engine noise was pretty overwhelming, anyway.
Melissa's answer had me laughing: I actually thought for a moment: hmmm, taping her fingers ...
It was so good to see you on Sunday! Courtney is simply beautiful and sweet.
GRRR! I think the feedback sound will forever be burned on my brain. It gets better as the kiddos get older. We had good success with the Hanna Andersson pilot caps too.
Wow I'm glad you found us! I was looking through your blog! I would love to keep in touch with you and your family visit my blog all u want and feel free to leave comments! The best thing I found for feedback is putting vasaline, otoform (professical made for feedback) around the mold that goes right in the ear canal not over the hole of course just around the ear canal piece works really well. As far as trying to keep hearing aids on It's tough I know The More Gavin would rip them out I had to turn around and put them back in I did this no joke 30 times a day. Now Gavin is 19 months, and he maybe takes them out 3 times a day and he hands them right over to me. And I put them right back in! Gavin first got hearing aids at 2 months old. Gavin has LVA or EVA! Now Gavin has been implanted and will be getting turned on Sept 5th. It is very exciting!
Good Luck and try not to worry yourself sick about the surgery that next day Gavin was up and running around like nothing even happened!
heatherfrost1206.blogspot.com
Drew lived in pilot caps forever!
www.hannaandersson.com
You might want to get a few - you'll need them when she gets her CI(s) too. The car seat, high chair and stroller are all areas where the coil on the CI keeps getting knocked off!
We love the CI's - no feedback. Just ask Landon's Mom - that's how he got his nickname "Buzz"!
Post a Comment