Many Infants Suffer From Hearing Loss Most Common Disability Often Is Hard For Parents To Detect
You notice something is wrong when you drop a plate in the kitchen. The loud crash startles the other kids, but your 5-month-old baby girl acts as if she hears nothing. She doesn’t respond to your voice, and you’ve noticed she doesn’t react to music or the sound of the dog barking.
Your baby may have a hearing loss.
Although other birth disabilities may get more publicity, hearing loss due to nerve damage is the most common birth disability in newborns. Six out of every 1,000 babies born in the United States have some sort of nerve damage that can lead to hearing loss, according to a 1994 National Institute of Health report.
It is also a condition that is easily detectable, even in babies as young as 3 days old.
“The average age for identifying hearing loss is 2 years, and by that time the child may very well have a speech and learning delay,” said Kami Crandall, a clinical audiologist with the Spokane Ear, Nose & Throat Clinic. That delay is unnecessary, and a new technology is making it easier for health-care professionals to diagnose and treat infants with hearing problems.
The clinic conducts free infant hearing screenings using the technique, called Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE), from 8 a.m. to noon every Tuesday.
Crandall says the screenings require no participation on the part of the child.
“By insertion of a soft probe into the ear canal and use of lowfrequency sound, (we can) detect serious hearing problems in infants,” said Crandall. She added that the procedure is relatively new, and only recently available in the Spokane area.
“It’s been around for a couple of years,” said Crandall. “We’ve had ways of testing kids’ hearing for years, but this procedure is much easier. The procedure can’t pick out small hearing losses, but we can spot serious problems very early.”
To determine if a child has a hearing loss, Crandall says a child needs to be seen by a physician who specializes in treating ear, nose and throat disorders. The child needs to be free of any ear infections, or the test will not be accurate.
Crandall is quick to point out that in many instances, nerve damage in the middle ear is responsible for infant hearing loss. Irreparable damage to a baby’s hearing can occur in the prenatal stages of development of the child.
“There a lot of things that cause hearing loss, like German measles,” said Crandall. “Cytomeglavirus (a blood-borne disease) is now one of the major causes.”
Diseases that cause high fever are also prime causes of middle-ear nerve damage in children.
“Mostly what we’re trying to find is children born with hearing loss. It can impact how a child learns,” said Crandall.
Not all infant hearing loss is nerve-related.
“One of the things you find is children with recurrent middle-ear infections, which can be treated with antibiotics,” said Crandall.
Once nerve-related hearing problems are confirmed by a physician, hearing aids may be needed to correct the situation. Costs for the devices are expensive, ranging from $1,200 to $2,000 for a set of two, according to Ulrike Kaufmann, coordinator for the Children with Special Health Care Needs program. The program is administered by the Spokane County Health Department.
It acts as a resource center and referral service for families with children who have health-care situations that may require special attention both at school and at the home.
“The problem is 90 percent of insurance company policies don’t cover hearing aids,” said Kaufmann.
Medicaid, the government-run health-care subsidy program for low-income individuals, does underwrite the cost of hearing aids, but there are medical and financial criteria that must be met before an individual can qualify for benefits. Similar criteria also apply to the county program.
Kaufmann says part of the problem in the United States is the lack of a uniform policy regarding screenings for infant hearing problems.
While some states, such as Rhode Island, do mandate such tests, most do not. This leads to later detection of hearing problems, resulting in learning and socialization problems for the child.
“There are national recommendations for early detection hearing,” said Kaufmann. “Unfortunately, this country does not have mandatory hearing screenings for infants.
Other countries, like Israel, have it.” As a result, the average age for detecting hearing problems in infants is 7 months in Israel, while in the U.S., it is 2-1/2 years.
Crandall says the delay hurts kids, and adds tremendously to the overall cost of educating all children.
“There is tons of literature that suggests that the costs to society are enormous,” said Crandall.
“The earlier we can detect it, the less negative impact it will have on the child. Our hopes are that we can get the child in school on time and on schedule.”
xxxx For Help If you think your baby may have hearing problems, call the Children with Special Health Care Needs program at the Spokane County Health Department, 324-1651. To schedule an appointment for a free screening, call 634-2326.