Child Hearing Safety

With back to school now in full swing post Labor Day, it’s a great time to think about your child’s hearing health.  As parents, we often take for granted that our children can hear and see well, but the truth is that there are many experiences that can damage our children’s hearing, including repeated ear infections and listening to music too loudly.  It is important to have your child’s hearing tested at a young age because it allows you time to begin treatment.  

Common indications that your child should have a hearing evaluation are:

• Frequent or recurrent ear infections
• Poor School performance
• Child doesn’t respond to his or her name consistently
• Child ask for words, phrases, or sentences to be repeated.

One way to prevent hearing loss is to monitor the volume of children’s portable music players, which may cause hearing loss if used too loudly and for too long a period of time.  In my home we allow our daughter to listen to her portable music device through a speaker system, which means that we are able to hear how loudly she is listening to music at all times.  This not only helps us keep track of the music’s volume, but is also easier on her ears than earbuds.

This post was sponsored by Rayovac, maker of hearing aid batteries.