Zachariah's New Ear Wear

Zachariah never did pass a hearing test in the NICU.  They did two of them, and could never get a good reading.  The results they did get suggested that there may be fluid in his ears.

The way to relieve the fluid is to do tubes.  But they couldn't do tubes until his breathing was more under control.  There was so much going on, that we didn't really worry about his hearing.

 He got his tubes when he was 6 months old.  They said we had to wait at least 4 weeks after tubes to have a hearing test.  So we waited 4 weeks and had a hearing test.  They couldn't get a good result.  The fit wasn't good, his breathing was too noisy.  We didn't worry too much, because he responded so well...even better after tubes.  Another month went by, and we did yet another hearing test.  Same result...couldn't get a good read, he is too noisy, wouldn't sit still...blah blah blah.  So our ENT said that the best thing to do would be to do an ABR while he was already under for his cleft palate repair.  So that is what we did.

On December 4th he had his palate repair.  (Someday hopefully I will go back and post about that one...) His surgery went quite well, but we were slightly surprised to find that Zachariah did indeed have a hearing loss.  It is a fairly mild one...he hears normally in the middle tones, but doesn't in many of the low and many of the high tones---which is where a lot of speech sounds fall.  Our audiologist said that it is mild enough that if he already had a speech and language base, they probably wouldn't address it.  It would be more annoying to us that he isn't hearing us speak, than it would be to him in understanding...BUT, since he has no speech and language base, it needs to be addressed.

So, 9 days after his surgery, we met with the audiologist to be fitted for hearing aids.  They did ear molds, which have to be replaced every couple months as his ears grow, and we picked out the pricey pieces he wears behind his ears.  There isn't anything cheap about this "accessory".  We went on January 7th to get them fitted.  He did really well considering.  We are still working up to wearing them most of the time, and most of the time he does well wearing them.  And he is hearing normally in all tones with them.  We don't necessarily notice a difference, but if it helps with his speech and language development, we will press forward!

What a trooper this kid is!