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Pediatric Hearing Loss: A Growing Risk
By Drs. Scott Schaffer & Karen McQuaide-Bell

It doesn’t surprise us when an older person has trouble hearing, but it can be alarming for a child to say “What?” repeatedly. Just how common is it for children to experience hearing loss, and is it ever considered normal?

Hearing & Hearing Loss

The ear is amazing when it works well: sound waves enter the ear canal, vibrating the eardrum and ear bones, which transfer the sound to the delicate nerves of the inner ear. There, the sound is transformed into electrical impulses, which travel to the brain.

Sensorineural hearing loss is the term applied to weakness of the inner ear. This can be inherited, but there is an increasing incidence of deafness caused by loud noise. But noise-related hearing loss can be prevented. 

Noise-Induced Hearing Loss

The cochlea of the inner ear is easily damaged by noise. Loud noise over a long period of time or extremely loud noise over a short period of time can cause these changes.

Children with hearing loss may miss faint sounds, or complain that people sound like they mumble when they speak. Parents might notice that the child turns up the TV volume too high, strains to hear conversations, or seems confused about the origin of sounds. 

Experts estimate that 12 percent of children have noise-induced hearing loss. There is no treatment which can reverse this type of hearing loss in 2006. However, if loud noise can be avoided, further hearing loss is prevented.

Therefore, we need to help our children when it comes to loud noise: avoid the noise if possible, moderate the noise when they can, and protect their ears when loud noise is unavoidable. Here are three quick tips:

• Avoidance: Parents should screen toys and video games for their loudness. Sounds are too loud if you have to yell to communicate above the noise, your ears hurt in the noise, or you notice hearing loss or ringing in the ears after the noise exposure has ceased. 

• Moderation: Children should turn down the volume of audio speakers in the car, listen to their personal stereos at 60 percent volume level and turn the music off every hour to give their ears a rest. 

• Protection: Earplugs and earmuffs are easy and effective measures to protect the ears from loud noise. Both come in smaller sizes for children. There is a specific ear plug for musicians designed to reduce sound levels through the full dynamic range of music.

Children must protect their ears when playing in band, listening to concerts, operating lawn/garden tools or driving recreational vehicles.

Scott R. Schaffer, MD is a Board-certified member of the American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery and is on the active medical staff of the Kennedy Health System. Karen McQuaide-Bell, AuD, CCC  is a fellow of the American Academy of Audiology and a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Assc.