[tri-med] Re: Hearing Loss

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <SHAMOND73
> with a baby how do you know if the battery is dead, or if they are hearing
> white noise or anything like that. how do you know they are functioning 
> the way
> they are supposed to ??

Firstly you need to change the battery regularly whether they need changing 
or not. We change Alex's every Monday and Thursday morning before school. If 
you are paying for batteries (we dont) then you can get a battery tester. 
How long they last depends on how strong the hearing aids are. When Alex's 
hearing loss was mild / moderate once a week was enough - now that he has a 
profound loss we are changing the battery twice a week.

Secondly they should give you an ear clip with the hearing aids. It looks a 
bit like a stethescope but it attaches the hearing aid instead of having the 
round thingy that you listen to your chest with. You remove the ear mould 
and then attach the ear clip onto it. Then you put the ear pieces (as I said 
its like a stethescope) into your ears and you can hear exactly what your 
child hears through the aid.

Alternatively, if you are lazy like me I simply shove his hearing aides into 
my ear :-)) I do recommend that you listen to what your child hears through 
the hearing aides though - funny story coming.

One day when I dropped Alex at school he asked me if he really had to wear 
his FM. I said of course you do why don't you like it? He told me that he 
didnt like the music could I change the channel. Now an FM is tuned to a 
microphone that the teacher wears so how on earth could he hear music? I 
figured that they must have the channel set wrong and Alex was picking up 
the microphone of another child in a different class. Either that or he had 
the funniest tinnitus under the sun. Finally I stuck his aids in my ear and 
listened - sure enough he was listening to an Arabic radio station!!!! It 
seems that a local Arabic FM radio station frequency was close to his FM 
frequency so when it was cloudy the signal bounced and his FM picked it 
up!!!!

Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well.
                                            -- Josh Billings

Keep Looking For Rainbows!!
   _--_|\
 /Karen \
 \ _.--._ /
          v Karen, Mum to Alex (12 years, T-18 Mosaic)
http://members.optushome.com.au/karens

                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
                  Families Helping Families On-line

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