Language development and the ability to learn

An undetected hearing loss in a child will hamper their speech and language development as well as their ability to learn, which often leads to communication difficulties and social isolation that has the potential to leave a child bewildered and alone in a world of silence.

According to Hema Thakor, a Client Relations Executive at Oticon South Africa, a leading hearing aid manufacturer, the gap between the vocabulary of children with normal hearing and those with hearing loss widens with age. “Without intervention, children with hearing loss may struggle to catch up and therefore it is important to act early if you suspect your child has a hearing loss. The earlier the problem is identified and intervention begun, the less profound the ultimate impact will be,” says Hema.

Hema Thankor, Client Relations Executive of Oticon SouthAfrica

From the womb

Infants are able to recognise familiar voices even before they are born, which is why babies get excited in the womb. “As a parent, you will expect your child to respond to your voice when you speak to them, or for them to move their head or eyes to follow the sounds they are hearing or to startle at loud sounds such as a door banging. If there is however no reaction then it would be prudent to investigate your child’s hearing,” says Hema.

Difficult to pick up

A mild hearing loss is often not picked up as it is easy to miss that a child cannot hear soft sounds. It normally only comes to light once the child starts talking between the ages of one and one-and-a-half years of age. A delay in their language development is an indicator or once they start school and struggle to hear well in the classroom.

If a parent suspects that a child has a hearing loss, they often do not know how to go about confirming it. “It can be quite a traumatic discovery and many parents spend quite some time in a state of denial, because they find it too painful to accept what is happening. It is a perfectly normal reaction, but for the sake of your child it is important to contact an Audiologist and to have your child’s hearing tested as soon as possible,” urges Hema.

 Hearing loss can occur if an infant:

• Is born prematurely
• Has stayed in the neonatal intensive care unit
• Is given medications that can lead to hearing loss – ototoxic drugs such ARVs
• Has a family history of childhood hearing loss
• Has had complications at birth
• Has had infections such as Meningitis or Cytomegalovirus
• Is exposed to very loud sounds or noises even for a brief duration

When and how can a child’s hearing be tested?

A child’s hearing can be tested as early as the day they are born. In fact, the majority of medical facilities in the private sector offer newborn hearing screening programs that will test the child’s hearing before they are discharged.

In an infant the aim would be to test whether the ear is functioning correctly by objectively assessing the outer ear, middle ear and inner ear (cochlear), which means that the infant does not have to respond to the test but that the equipment utilised will determine the results.

Recommended screening technologies include oto-acoustic emissions (OAE), which assess cochlear functioning, and auditory brainstem responses (ABR), which record neural activity in response to sounds.

The tests are accurate and take one to three minutes to perform; and have the same sensation as simply putting a finger in the infant’s ear.

“A hearing loss or the degree thereof is often not diagnosedduring one assessment in infants.An Audiologist willoften at the very least repeat the same test twice or perform multiple tests to confirm results in order to ensure the reliability of the results,” says Hema.

Treatment options

There are various treatment options available, following an accurate diagnosis. “Speak to your doctor or Audiologist about optimising the hearing that your child has, to develop his or her speech and language.This could result in your child being fitted with a hearing aid or cochlear implant.

However, your Audiologist will be best equipped to advise which is better suited to your child. Remember that the road to hearing is often thwarted with emotional distress, so don’t embark upon the process alone, even parents need support,” concludes Hema.

For more information, please visit www.oticon.co.za

The post What if my baby has hearing loss? appeared first on All4Baby.

It’s hard. I can go all day feeling drier than the Sahara and then I feel the longing and the emptiness in our home or I look at one of his photos, remember the time I took it and the flood of tears comes.

The only thing that doesn’t go away, even momentarily, is the pain. It’s physical and real and on-going. Unending.

I won’t write much more today. It feels disloyal to his memory still. Everything feels disloyal to his memory. Eating without interruption. Watching a TV show in its entirety. Taking a walk outside without his baby monitor. The guilt is all consuming.

We’re alive and he’s not.

However, I did promise a few mothers that I’d share my eulogy with them and it was the only thing I wanted to get right on the day we bid him a public farewell, so here it is…

“I sat alone this morning, the day before we sent your body away, and listened for you. I tried as hard as I could to see you. And in the quiet noise that is nature, I felt my own heart skip a beat as it has done several times a week since you were born…

I drew in a sharp breath and remembered… That this is where you live now.

I’ve woken up before the sun every day since Friday. My intentions always become very clear to anyone paying attention. I would hate the sun. I would hate it with every ounce of my being because it refuses to mourn. Because every time the sun comes up it means another day I have to live without my son.

Every day I’ve begged whoever is in charge to take me back, just to last week Wednesday or Thursday so I could stop it. But, most hatefully, it will not be.

Every day, I’ve asked that I be taken instead and every day ends and I’m still here.

Every day, I’ve blamed myself for letting my beautiful son die.

Every day I get up from the couch where I sleep, I go into the room where he woke us at 01h30 on Friday morning to make sure we were there for him when his little heart gave up and I weep as I realise anew that nothing we did changed anything.

Every day I rise and I am as cold to my bones as his soft skin was the last time I kissed his face and all I want to be is as cold as the Winter that has truly arrived since the day he died.

But, no matter how hard I try to hate everything in this world, it doesn’t last.

I realise the sun is actually Hudson. I realise that he will not allow me to hate for much longer. I know that he will turn my anger into calm. My grief into smiles as I remember him. I know this is a long journey and I won’t be the person he needs me to be today but I also know as the sun hits my shoulders that he will be there to comfort me  until I can be the person he knows me to be.

He mourned with me on Saturday and Sunday and the sun was hidden behind a blanket of miserable grey clouds and rain (as my friend Axel posted in a private message to me: “The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.”) but now Hudson warms me. He reminds me that he’s here still.

That everything he went through in his life was mapped out long before he entered my body and became a part of me that would never leave. That he chose his path. He chose Nick and I. He chose his faulty heart. He chose the difficult and trying life that he lived and he chose his death.

Before Hudson, I realise now, I was a shell of a person. I would say I was selfish and wanted what I wanted in life and had no room for the bigness of children. But it was a lie. I was just empty and didn’t know any better.

I was walking along looking for somebody and then suddenly I wasn’t anymore. He forced his way into my life and, in doing so, saved me from myself. I fell truly in love for the first time in my life. Hudson turned me into something. He turned me into love. He filled me. He completed me. He made me count.

You are all here because you knew Hudson in one way or another. So I’m not going to go into the surgery and hospital stays and rubbish doctors or even tell you the funny stories of the nurses who poked fun at his fake crying. You’ve all followed his journey through pictures and updates, you’ve all fallen in love with him vicariously because, even from a distance, it was simply impossible not to adore this kid.

What you might not know though is that no matter how hard things got. No matter how many times I thought I couldn’t put my son through another day in the hospital. No matter how the guilt swelled up inside me as I watched them poking his skin in search of veins. There was never a day in his life that my son didn’t smile broadly and “gummily” at his dad and me. That he didn’t stare deeply into my eyes with eyes as big as his face – eyes that enveloped me entirely with one glance and showed, with such beautiful honesty, his instant and surging love for his mom. Eyes that told me exactly what he needed at any given point of the day.

He was happy and giddy and shy and full to the brim with love. He was a personality and proud of it. He had a sense of humour and a physical wit that would put me to shame. He held his head up high almost from birth. He spoke his first word. He laughed as his father and I touched his little tummy.

Even his last day with us was one filled with gums and fistfuls of grabbed hair as he hugged me tightly and snuggled his little face tiredly into my neck.

But one of the most important things I’ll remember about my son was his impact. When he was born, I said he was going to be famous. When we found out he’d have to undergo surgery, I said he was going to be big and important. I told him he had no choice but to make it through and that I was expecting nothing but success. And he was and still is all of these things.

Because of Hudson, people are hugging their children a little tighter at night.

Because of Hudson, one mother might ask her doctor to perform the check on her unborn son for CHDs and, in doing so, save her child.

Because of Hudson, Nick is a father, the proudest, most attentive, doting father I have ever known or could ever have hoped for.

And, because of Hudson, and only because of Hudson, I am now a person of substance. I am Hudson’s mother, and this is always going to be bigger than anything I ever wanted to be.”

The post A mom’s heartfelt eulogy to her four month old son appeared first on All4Baby.

Your baby is becoming more alert and will express herself through babbling, gurgling and smiles. She will also put anything and everything into her mouth, as taste is the way that she explores her world.

As your baby develops an inquisitive nature, it is important to remember not to leave small items lying around that she can choke on.

During this month, you can stimulate your baby by giving her different textures to explore or a rattle to shake. You can also give your baby more dangling toys that she can swipe at. At this age, baby’s love a change of scenery, so be sure to show her different things inside and outside of the house.

Remember, at this age your baby should spend almost as much time on her tummy as she does on her back. While on her tummy, she is stimulated to lift her head and chest. This is great preparation for crawling.

Your four month old baby will most likely;

• Be ale to lift her head while doing tummy time
• Start to splash her hands and feet while she is in the bath
• Babble and talk to you using sounds such as “aah”
• Bring her feet up in the air and kick while lying on her back
• Bring whatever you put in her hands to her mouth
• Reach out for object

The post Your baby at four months old appeared first on All4Baby.