Hearing screening is a must for newborns

Hearing screening, as a necessary test for newborns, is basically done for every baby, but the importance of this test for parents is still unclear.

Today, let’s see why hearing screening is so important.

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Two common mistakes in listening comprehension

First, is the first time the child’s hearing screening failed, there must be hearing problems?

Answer: no!!!

When a child is born, amniotic fluid, fetal fat and other residues will remain in the external auditory canal, which will weaken or disappear the signal of otoacoustic emission.

Therefore, it is generally recommended to carry out hearing screening 48 hours after the birth of the newborn. At the same time, before hearing screening, the external auditory canal can be cleaned properly with a small cotton stick.

In addition, there are also some newborns with middle ear effusion, which will also cause abnormal results of hearing screening. This situation will improve with the gradual absorption of middle ear effusion, and most of the newborns with middle ear effusion will become normal after 3 months of reexamination.

Not only that, if the newborn is fidgety or can’t keep quiet during hearing screening, it will also affect the passing of hearing screening.

As premature and low birth weight infants are the high-risk population of hearing impairment, parents will pay more attention to the situation of hearing screening, but the pass rate of these children in the first hearing screening is often not high, in this case, parents should not worry too much.

Because the hearing conduction and nervous system development of these infants are not very mature, some infants will temporarily fail to pass the hearing screening. With the development of various organs of the baby’s body, the passing rate of hearing screening will be greatly improved when rechecked at 42 days after delivery.

We need to pay attention to hearing screening

Second, is the child through the hearing screening, once and for all?

Answer: no!!!

According to the data analysis of the American children’s hearing screening guidelines, the incidence of permanent hearing loss in infancy is 3 ‰, while that in school age is 9 ‰ – 10 ‰.

The temporary and permanent hearing loss of one ear and two ears can reach more than 14%, and the total number of patients aged 6-19 years old is more than 7 million.

It also tells us that the incidence of hearing loss in childhood will gradually increase with age due to disease or other reasons.

At present, the age of hearing screening in China is defined as 0-6 years old, while developed countries propose that the scope of hearing screening should be extended to high school students.

Screening for early hearing loss

3. Some parents may think that the probability of hearing loss is not high. Let’s look at a set of data first.

Update’s statistics: in 1000 newborns, 1-3 have obvious bilateral hearing impairment, while the incidence of moderate and severe hearing impairment is 1:900-2500, and the incidence of unilateral force injury greater than 30 decibels is as high as 6:1000.

The earlier the hearing loss is, the more serious the consequences will be. In infancy, if there is no timely intervention, even mild hearing loss will lead to serious physiological disorders in children’s behavior.

Causes of hearing loss

What are the causes of hearing loss?

From the process of sound transmission, sound first enters the inner ear through the outer and middle ear, and then is transformed into nerve electrical signals in the cochlea and transmitted to the brain.

It can be seen that no matter the structure of the outer or middle ear leads to the failure of sound transmission, or the cochlea and the subsequent problems of nerve electrical signal transmission and brain reception function, it will cause hearing damage.

Generally speaking, there are three causes of hearing loss: conduction, sensorineural and mixed.

Signs of hearing problems

Five

If the child has the following problems, it needs to attract the attention of parents, and timely go to the specialist to avoid delaying the opportunity.

● when the child is 1 month old, he / she can’t respond to the noise stimulus of decibel and won’t be frightened by the noise. At the age of 3-4 months, you can’t turn to the source of sound;

● children can’t just rely on sound to notice you;

● he focuses on mouthwash and vibration, which can be felt, but does not try to produce individual vowels or consonants;

● start speaking late, and will not call “Dad” or “Mom” in 12-15 months;

There is often no response when calling him, which is likely to be mistaken by parents for the child’s absent mindedness or disobedience, in fact, it may be caused by partial deafness;

● children seem to hear only certain sounds;

● not only does the child seem to have poor hearing, but also can’t keep his head upright or walk and sit slowly without support.

If hearing loss can not be found and intervened in time, it will not only lead to deaf mute, speech retardation, but also in children’s emotional, psychological and social fields.

Hearing screening is not a process. Every mom and dad should pay attention to their baby’s hearing.