Sound or Noise? Keep Baby Safe from Hearing Loss Danger

Each day, your little one is exposed to different kinds of sounds. Even toys nowadays– the electronic and interactive ones, feature music as part of their most saleable qualities. Digital toys have built-in sounds meant to be repeated or played loudly to catch your tot’s attention. How can parents know when such toys are dangerously loud for their tykes? Ear specialists give their expert advice on the effects of noisy toys and how you can protect your child’s ears from getting damaged.

 

Defining noise 

How can one tell when a sound is already considered harmful to a child’s ears? Bernabe S. Singson, M.D., Ear, Nose, Throat (ENT) Head and Neck Surgery Specialist at St. Luke’s Medical Center says noise occurs when a sound becomes loud enough to disturb a conversation. Basically, noise is present when people start having a difficult time hearing one another. Gem Mañosa, consultant for Tomatis Philippines, a center which offers auditory training therapy to children, defines noise as “having a hard time filtering out a particular sound due to the presence of unnecessary sounds.”

Noise is a form of auditory distraction, says Mañosa, who notes the difference between “hearing” and “listening.” Hearing is a passive action, whereas listening is an actual voluntary action where the subject wants to understand what he hears. 

 

[previous|page|next]

Noise in the home

 With the presence of auditory distractions in the home, such as TV, kitchen appliances, musical toys, and noise in general, a child’s capacity for learning and listening becomes greatly affected, if not diminished, points out Mañosa. 

Here’s how loud certain objects are, measured in decibels (130 marking the threshold of pain, or the level or point at which pain can already be felt):

Hammer - 100

Vacuum cleaner - 80

Residential area at night - 40

Ordinary conversation - 65

Human breathing - 10

Aside from concentration and verbal development, certain noises can also pose psychological, even traumatic effects, particularly on the temper and disposition of a child. Jan Dizon, graphic designer and mom to Pao, 6, recalls Pao’s days as a toddler, when he’d be frightened of the sound of helicopters and thunder. “I’d let him watch documentaries about nature and machines on TV so he’d know they were nothing to be afraid of,” she says. Carla Celino, a medical student and mom to Cayden, 3, recounts how her son would be scared of firecrackers. “He’d hug me really tight, find comfort from someone nearby, or hide under the bed or table,” she says. “I’d tell him to cover his ears, but that didn’t work. So to calm him down, I’d play his favorite movie or let him watch cartoons.” 

Listening problemsListening problems can eventually lead to difficulty in communication and overall development. “They act like they don’t understand what you’re saying, [and] you have to repeat what you’re saying over and over again,” explains Mañosa. The difficulty in communication manifests itself in two ways: receptive and expressive. Receptive pertains to a child’s difficulty in hearing and understanding what someone tells him, while expressive refers to the difficulty in expressing one’s self.
There are ways to help recover or strengthen your child’s skills when it comes to listening and maintaining his focus on a particular sound. The Tomatis method, for instance, uses an Electronic Ear to filter music, explains Mañosa. The child wears earphones and listens to music from Mozart. As the sessions progress, certain frequencies are removed, until only the lowest frequencies remain. This helps train the child to filter out ambient noises, thus sharpening his concentration.

 

[previous|page|next]

Hearing loss danger

Voltaire Ungui, author of Hearing Loss: What To Do Now?, explains how typically, babies with normal hearing will get startled by loud noises during their sleep. At six months, they will respond to auditory cues such as when someone calls their name. The child’s overall ability to speak is also largely reliant on the ability to hear properly, as speech develops from cooing during infancy, mimicry of sounds during the formative years, until simple words can be spoken. Beyond age two, your little one should be able to talk, know how to respond to simple questions, and determine the source of sounds. If your child does not exhibit these common indications of normal hearing, then you might want to have his ears checked by specialists.

Children who live in a noisy environment are more prone to damaging their ears. A significant effect that noise can create for your tot, says Dr. Singson, is noise-induced hearing loss. This happens when the inner ear is damaged, caused by prolonged exposure to loud noises. The good thing about noise-induced hearing loss is that it is preventable. Dr. Singson suggests closing windows and doors, wearing ear protectors like ear plugs or ear muffs, and taking Vitamin B to help strengthen the ear nerve and prevent tinnitus (damage of nerve cells in the cochlea), which causes a persistent ringing, hissing, and buzzing sound in the ears.

Should you suspect that your child might have hearing loss, Ungui suggests bringing him to the following professionals:1. ENT (ears, nose, throat). They have special training in handling the medical and medicinal needs of ENT problems. They prescribe medicine and perform surgery.2. Audiologist. They use medically approved instruments like hearing aids and cochlear implants for the diagnosis, intervention, evaluation, and management of hearing loss3. Hearing aid consultant. When there are no audiologists available.4. Speech therapists. They help manage speech and learning development aspects of the child as he grows. 

Ear Care for Your Child“Cleaning the ear is not advisable,” says Bernabe S. Singson, M.D., Ears, Nose, Throat, Head and Neck Surgery Specialist. Cleaning the ear usually leads to external ear infection, and according to Voltaire Ungui, author of Hearing Loss: What To Do Now?, infections of the ear canal and eardrum can lead to hearing loss. 

“The ear has a natural cleaning process,” stresses Dr. Singson. Cerumen, or ear wax, carries outwards the old wax and dead skin from the ear canal. It also plays a vital role in maintaining the health and cleanliness of the outer ear. It protects the parts inside the ear canal and the ear drum from foreign bodies, says Ungui. Babies’ and children’s ears should never be cleaned, says Dr. Singson. For adults, at most would be once a week. He also emphasizes that cotton buds should not be used for cleaning the ears because they only traumatize the ear canal. “Just use moist cotton [to wipe the outer ear],” he says. 

Photo by cross-eyed doll via flickr creative commons