The journey to hearing – headband hearing aid

Anyone who has been following our journey to Cordelia hearing will already know our little girl was diagnosed with glue ear earlier this year. A problem that occurs quite commonly in young children with 8 out of every 10 encountering it in their youth. 

With most children a cold or an ear infection can bring a mild form of glue ear and cause them to lose some of their hearing for short periods of time until the cold has gone. Sometimes this can be a week, a month or even a few days. The normal level of hearing loss being less than 20 decibels. 

Cordy’s glue ear has been a bit more severe meaning she has so far been without hearing below 50-60 decibels since (as far as we are aware) April. This is the maximum loss they would expect a child with glue ear to have. 

Because of this she has been referred for a grommits operation which will hopefully take place in October this year. In the meantime we have now been issued a hearing aid for her to use day to day. 

This arrived with us on Tuesday last week and I will be honest its transformed my little girl! From the minute it was fitted she immediately reacted to our voices. The first time I spoke and she turned her head almost instantly I thought I was going to burst with emotion. My heart was racing and the tears filled my eye ducts. 

She has been given a hair band type hearing aid on a hard band. This contains a microphone that then sends sound to a device that signals vibrations to the bone behind her ear and creates the sound. You can barely even tell it’s anything other than a standard head band. It’s great. 

I had been so dubious when I was initially told she would have a hearing aid but it couldn’t be further from my expectations. And Cordelia is in her element now, telling us all the new things she can hear. 

When we arrived home from the hospital after it had been fitted she was walking through the hall and said to me, “mummy I can hear my shoes on the floor”. I was astounded to think that a simple noise like that was going unheard by her. 

As it was a nursery day for her I had debated whether to send her in. But I thought I should leave the decision to her and she was over the moon at the prospect of going in! I rang ahead and took her in for lunchtime. 

After the few hours of the afternoon I went to pick her up. I was a little bit anxious about how it had gone but really I had no need to be! She was fantastic! She had told everyone there about how her headband made her hear everyone and had even told one of the nursery assistants that she was “very loud today”. 

And to be honest it’s changed our lives at home with her too! The tantrums seem to be less and less and her dad reports that getting her ready in the morning is a dream. We will see how long it lasts but it certainly seems like the communication barrier has been dropped now for us and for her! 

The other good thing is that she takes it off at night so her brother isn’t interrupting her sleep and she goes off like a log! It’s just the bright mornings waking her up at 6am now!