Whose kids use hearing aids? Sedated ABR?

[kellyds]

Joshie is having a sedated ABR in October. He has never passed a hearing test (has had three). I have been so frustrated with the lack of direction I've received. He flunked his newborn hearing screen and that's all I was told. . . no instructions for follow up. A few months later, I decided to take him to an ear, nose, throat guy for advice. He did another hearing test, told me Joshie had significant hearing loss in both ears, and told me to take the results to our pediatrician. Our pediatrician referred us to an audiologist, who stood us up after we had driven an hour to see her! (The receptionist was sooo apologetic.) I took matters into my own hands and made an appt with another audiologist, who again told me to take the (poor) results to our pediatrician. I finally remembered a lady who had given me her card when Joshie was having heart surgery four years ago (!) and called her. She collected all the test results and arranged for this sedated test which is intended to fit him for hearing aids. So . . . That much is just ME, needing to vent. :-)

My real question is . . . Whose kids use hearing aids? How are they working? And, how the heck do you keep them on your child? Joshie strips naked unless I pin his clothing on him. I have a feeling his hearing aids might end up in a corner with his discarded jeans!

[Googsmom aka Jennifer]

{{{{{HUGS JOSHIE}}}}}}

[wrblack]

We had a sedated ABR couple of years ago and got good results. So, we do not have any experience with hearing aids.
Not meaning to alarm you, but I remember a story about a kid who flushed his brand new, $2000 hearing aids at school. Having learned from that experience, parents tied short piece of fishing line to hearing aids and to safety pin attached to back of shirt collar.
Just a thought. In a corner with jeans sounds pretty good compared to down the toilet at school. -- Bob

[carolyn]

Well my goodness, who wouldn't be frustrated after all this!! My son has never had a sedated ABR. Although he has done not that great on hearing tests, he has incredibly good hearing when we don't want him to hear! The hearing tests are not really accurate, so this ABR will be the definitve test to get the right answers. That said, I hope you are able to hook up with a great audiologist who will be able to help you through all this if hearing aides are in fact the answer. It will be a slow process to introduce them- they won't want to bring the hearing levels up too quickly. However, I can only imagine what kind of vigilence it will take to keep them accounted for! My son has burned through many pair of glasses- I can laugh about it sometimes, but he has lost them on the playground, thrown the out the car window and just plain lost them in the house. It is so frustrating as we pay out of pocket for eye glasses, and he needs them so badly but due to the cost we don't have spare ones. So every time they disappear we are in a panic! Best of luck to you!

Bob- the fishing line is such a great idea!!

[kellyd]

Hi,

My daughter Talia has been wearing hearing aids since 3 years of age. The first year was difficult trying to train her to keep them on but we were very firm with her. Now she doesn't really give us any problems unless she is angry with us . At first she was wearing analogue hearing aids but then about a year a go we purchased digital hearing aids which were really expensive. To give us a better piece of mind, we purchased these awesome hearing aid clips that attach to her clothes. They are so strong that there is no way that she can pull them off her clothes. You can purchase them on line at gearforears.com/about_us.asp. They are just great and on the website you can read all of the testimonials.

I hope this helps you.

[sugarbabymarlena]

it all sounds too familliar... The test was actually good, marlena has tubes in her canals, and after they were placed we still could not get a good test. but after sedated abr they said she has perfect hearing... and now she is old enuff to look around for sounds and is proving that her hearing is fine... Hope the best in October!