Baby hearing disorder, how to find and intervene early?

Many people think that the baby is born without hearing, but in fact, normal newborns have auditory orientation ability in their lifetime. Therefore, caring for the next generation should start from paying attention to children’s hearing health.

baby

01, why should we pay attention to children’s hearing impairment?

Humans perceive the world through the senses. In all sensory experiences, people promote communication and socialization through hearing, establish connections, participate in daily activities, perceive dangers, and experience life. The global population of 5% (about 3 billion 6 million people) is accompanied by hearing loss of disability, of which 3 thousand 2 million are children, mainly in low- and middle-income countries.

The incidence of congenital hearing impairment in neonates is 1‰-2‰. With age, permanent hearing impairment can continue to increase. The prevalence of hearing impairment in 5 is up to 2.7‰, and puberty is as high as 3.5‰. Childhood is a critical period of speech development. If hearing impairment is not detected in time and effective intervention measures are taken, the lighter can lead to backward speech development and behavioral problems; the severe ones can lead to serious speech development disorders and even affect children’s emotions. , psychological and social interactions and other capabilities. Therefore, early detection and early intervention of children with hearing impairment are essential.

02, what is hearing impairment?

Hearing impairment refers to the difficulty in hearing the ears due to various reasons, and the ambient sound and speech sound cannot be heard or heard. The degree includes the following:

Mild (listening threshold 26-40dB HL): It is difficult to listen to the conversation;

Moderate (listening threshold 41-60dB HL): It is difficult to listen to a loud voice;

Severe (listening threshold 61-80dB HL): You can only hear a few words when you yell at your ear;

Extremely heavy (listening threshold 81dB HL or more): You can’t hear any words when you yell at your ears.

Hearing loss level

What are the common causes of 03 and hearing impairment in children?

Hearing impairment has many causes, including congenital factors and acquired factors. The former refers to congenital hearing loss that occurs at birth or shortly after birth, and the latter refers to hearing loss that occurs during childhood. Hearing impairment may be the result of a combination of factors, but sometimes it is difficult to identify the cause of the cut. Possible causes of hearing impairment in children include:

Genetic factors: About 40% of children’s hearing loss is caused by genetic factors. Evidence suggests that offspring with close relatives or close relatives have a higher probability of hearing loss. Congenital or auditory nerve malformations may be the cause of hearing loss due to genetic or environmental factors.

Time factors: including premature birth, low birth weight, neonatal asphyxia (referring to the disease caused by hypoxia at birth) and neonatal jaundice.

Infection: Infection with rubella, cytomegalovirus, etc. during pregnancy may cause hearing loss in newborns. In addition, meningitis, measles and mumps may also cause hearing loss.

Ear diseases: common ear diseases such as obstruction of the eustachian tube (non-suppurative otitis media) caused by embolism (earwax accumulation) and hydrocephalus can also cause hearing loss in children.

Noise: Long-term use of personal audio playback devices such as smartphones and MP3 may cause hearing loss. Noise from short-term high-decibels such as fireworks and firecrackers may cause permanent hearing loss. In addition, equipment noise in the neonatal intensive care unit can also cause hearing loss.

Drugs: used to treat a variety of drugs such as neonatal infections, malaria, drug-resistant tuberculosis and cancer, which can cause hearing loss due to ototoxicity. In many areas, especially in areas where drug use is not standardized, ototoxic drugs are often used to treat common infections in children.

04, how to prevent and avoid it?

According to WHO estimates, about 60% of children under the age of 15 can avoid hearing loss. Among them, the proportion of low- and middle-income countries is high, up to 75%, and high-income countries are 49%. The above gaps are mainly attributable to the high infection rates in underserved areas and the sound maternal and child health services systems in high-income countries.

Genetics is one of the most important factors for congenital deafness in newborn babies. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen pre-pregnancy examinations, especially couples with a family history of deafness or deafness, and couples who have had children with deafness. The ear deaf gene screening should be carried out before pregnancy to reduce the birth of deaf children.

Many factors in pregnancy can also affect the hearing of the fetus, mainly viral infections in early pregnancy (including rubella, cytomegalovirus, etc.), ototoxic drugs (gentamicin, kanamycin, etc.) during pregnancy, high-risk pregnant women (diabetes) , A low, etc.). Therefore, virus infection and ototoxic drugs should be avoided during pregnancy, and high-risk pregnant women should be monitored. In addition, about 17% of hearing loss is caused by birth complications such as premature birth, low birth weight, neonatal asphyxia, and neonatal jaundice. Improving maternal and child health services can help prevent such diseases.

Infection is one of the main factors of hearing loss in the neonatal period. For example, cytomegalovirus infection (which occurs during intrauterine or production) can cause damage to the inner ear and/or auditory nerve, nervous system infection and hypoxia, severe hyperbilirubin. Hypertension can also affect the auditory nerve, leading to hearing loss. Improper use of certain drugs may also affect neonatal hearing. Therefore, active treatment of primary disease, rational drug use is an important measure to prevent hearing loss in newborns.

Cause of hearing loss

There are many reasons for hearing loss in childhood, and it is recommended to take precautions against:

A family history of deafness is recommended for deafness genetic testing and genetic counseling to prevent delayed hereditary deafness;

High-risk children with a history of asphyxia, jaundice, and viral infection in the neonatal period, even if they have passed newborn hearing screening, at least XIUX-3 hearings are reviewed annually before the age of 1;

Hearing loss in children over 30% is caused by diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella and meningitis, which can be avoided by preventing immunization and good hygiene;

To prevent hearing loss caused by head trauma and entertainment noise;

If the child finds that the child is patting or scratching the ear, or has ear itch, ear swelling and other discomfort, or find that the child is slow to respond to the voice or can not hear more questions, parents should take the child to seek medical treatment to exclude secretory otitis media.

05, how to detect hearing impairment early?

In addition to the preventive measures mentioned above, early detection and diagnosis of hearing impairment in children is very important. Specifically, it includes the following items:

Newborn Hearing Screening: refers to the non-invasive initial screening of the baby’s hearing in the hospital from the time of birth to the time of discharge. Newborn hearing screening is the most effective way to detect hearing loss early. If the newborn’s hearing screening fails, parents need to perform hearing screening in the hospital on 42 days. If the hearing screening fails, they need to go to the hearing-qualified hospital for examination when the baby is 3 months old. .

Does the hearing of the initial screening fail? Is there a problem with the baby’s hearing? Not necessarily, the hearing screening results are also affected by many factors, such as residual fetal fat in the external auditory canal, amniotic fluid, etc.; the baby crying during the test is not quiet; the environment is noisy; the middle ear Liquid accumulation; inspection operation is not standardized, and so on. Of course, these factors can be ruled out in rescreening or further hearing tests.

Therefore, in order to ensure the normal operation of the hearing screening, parents need to feed the baby before the hearing screening, change the diaper, the thickness of the package is moderate, so that the baby is in a comfortable state. Try to keep quiet during hearing screening, turn off communication equipment, avoid noise, and check with your doctor.

Children’s Hearing Screening: China’s Children’s Ear and Hearing Health Technical Specifications stipulates that the age of children’s hearing screening is 0-6 years old, that is, after the newborn hearing screening, enter the 0-6 year old child health system management, in health Ear and hearing care are performed at the same time as 6, 12, 24 and 36 ages are the key ages for hearing screening.

0-3 infants and young children are screened by screening otoacoustic emission, auditory behavior observation or portable auditory evaluator; 3 children and older are recommended to use tympanogram in addition to the above screening, respectively, in 4, 5 and 6 were screened each time. Anyone who is positive for screening results should be referred to in time.

06, how to easily judge your baby’s hearing?

The development of the auditory organs and auditory center begins at the onset of pregnancy. For newborns, the critical period of hearing and speech development begins within 6 months after birth, or even earlier. The premise of neonatal auditory and language learning is normal hearing, and children’s speech is also subject to certain rules and needs to have some necessary conditions (normal cognitive ability, behavioral ability and external language environment).

How do young parents simply judge whether there is a problem with your baby’s hearing at home? Here are some tips for you:

Infants within 6 months often have blinks, sudden sucking, and turning and other reflections on sudden sounds. If a sudden loud sound occurs during sleep, the baby may suddenly move or even wake up. Parents can observe whether the baby has the above performance when a loud sound suddenly appears, such as closing the door loudly, clapping a hand or opening a loud music sound.

Infants from 6 months to 1 years old, with increased awareness and interest in sound, will take the initiative to turn around to find the sound source and begin to model the pronunciation of others, which can be observed with some toys in the house. If the child is not interested in the sound at this stage or has not begun to “hide the language”, then be alert to the child’s hearing problems.

Children from 1 to 2 can observe their reactions to voice and language, such as whether they can understand adults, whether they can speak simple words or phrases, and whether children respond to smaller music or speech.

Children over the age of 2 must first observe the child’s language development. If they can express their meaning in words, can they complete the simple task after hearing the instructions of the adults. Secondly, whether the child is easily tired of talking for a long time, often asking others to repeat the words, sometimes speaking or sometimes not being heard, is also a manifestation of the child’s hearing loss. Finally, carefully observe whether the child likes to make the sound of music or TV louder, and whether or not the class is not focused on the sudden decline in academic performance.

If you find that your child has a suspicious hearing problem, you should seek medical advice promptly. Specifically, you can compare the following table↓

Hearing test

What should I do if 07 is diagnosed with hearing impairment?

Early intervention is necessary if the child is diagnosed with hearing impairment, which is the key to successful recovery. Different interventions were chosen based on the different hearing conditions of the child.

For children with secretory otitis media, regular follow-up and re-examination should be carried out, according to the hearing situation, observation or drug treatment, if necessary, surgical treatment; for children with mild and moderate sensorineural deafness, in addition to regular review of hearing, should be matched Wear hearing aids; for children with severe and severe hearing impairment, if the hearing aid is not effective, cochlear implant surgery can be performed. For children with unilateral hearing impairment, auditory intervention should be carried out in time, while protecting the healthy ear, avoiding head trauma and improper use of drugs to prevent hearing loss.

I hope that all babies are in good health. Of course, if you do have hearing impairment, you should go to the doctor early.

Jinghao medical hearing aid reminder: hearing aids need to be professionally “fitted”, it is very important to choose a professional hearing aid fitting center and hearing aid fittings! All patients and friends have any hearing problems can call the Jinghao medical consultation, or personally Come to the fitting center experience. Hearing aid free consultation phone: +86-18566295705

You can also scan our WeChat public account for more information about hearing.

Link:Baby hearing disorder, how to find and intervene early?

REF: Hearing aids ChinaITE hearing aidsDigital Hearing Aids
The article comes from the Internet. If there is any infringement, please contact [email protected] to delete it.

Leave a Reply