Taking care of hearing aids

Last reviewed: 25 June 2024

It’s important to keep hearing aids in good working order so your child has the best access to communication, language and learning. You’ll need to check your child’s hearing aids regularly to make sure they’re working.

This page covers how to maintain standard, behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids with conventional earmoulds, which use disposable batteries. If your child uses a different type of hearing aid, contact your child's audiologist for support with care and maintenance.

If you prefer written step-by-step instructions on caring for hearing aids, you can download or order our booklet Hearing Aids: Information for families.

Daily check

A daily check and listening test can help you find any faults in your child’s hearing aids, many of which can be easily fixed.

Your child’s audiologist or Teacher of the Deaf (ToD) can show you how to check that your child’s hearing aids are working and give you a hearing aid care kit.

You can also watch our demonstration video here: 

Visual check

• Is the hearing aid’s casing cracked or damaged?
• If a microphone cover is fitted (which is sometimes part of the elbow), is it secure and free from blockage?
• Is there any obvious damage to the elbow (look for holes, dents or cracks)?
• If a filter was fitted, make sure it’s still there.
• Is the elbow wobbling or loose?
• Has the flap that covers the programming controls been opened or lost?
• Is there a problem with the battery compartment?
• Is there any obvious damage to the battery contacts inside the battery compartment?
• Are there any signs of rust (or rust staining) inside the battery compartment?
• Hold the hearing aid firmly between your thumb and index finger and shake it gently. If there’s a rattling sound, a part inside the hearing aid could be loose.
• Is there any condensation or moisture in the tubing or elbow?

If there are any problems with the hearing aid, contact your child’s audiologist as soon as possible for advice.

Listening test

At your child’s hearing aid fitting appointment, the audiologist should have given you a hearing aid maintenance kit and shown you how to do a listening test. Contact your child’s audiologist if you’re unclear how to do this or want to be shown again.

Your hearing aid care kit should include a stetoclip. This is a plastic headset that lets you listen to your child’s hearing aid and check that it’s working properly. If your child wears powerful hearing aids, use an attenuator with the stetoclip so you can listen at a safe and comfortable volume. The attenuator will also be included in your hearing aid kit.

If you’re deaf yourself, you can ask your child’s ToD to do their listening tests.

If you have good hearing, you can do the following listening test every day.

1. Fit the stetoclip over the meatal tip (the part of the earmould that goes furthest into the ear canal). Or remove the earmould tubing from the elbow, and push the end of the elbow into the stetoclip tubing.
2. Turn on the hearing aid and talk to the aid throughout the listening test. If you can’t hear your own voice through the aid, you may have a faulty battery or battery contacts, or you could have the batteries in the wrong way round. Check that the stetoclip tube is not kinked and blocking the sound. If you still hear nothing, there’s probably a fault with the hearing aid, and you’ll need to take it back to your child’s audiologist or hearing aid clinic.
3. You shouldn’t hear any crackles or jumps in volume when you listen to your own voice. If the hearing aid has a volume control, gently press it – the sound should not turn off. If the hearing aid does any of these, you need to take it back to your child’s audiologist or hearing aid clinic.
4. While listening, gently squeeze the hearing aid case, particularly near the battery compartment. Doing this shouldn’t stop you from hearing your own voice. If it does, you need to take the aid back to your child’s audiologist or hearing aid clinic.
5. Most hearing aids incorporate the on/off switch with the battery door. Open and close the battery door to make sure that the aid switches on and off.

Even hearing aids that are working can sound a little strange to people with good hearing. If you listen to them regularly, you’ll become familiar with how your child’s hearing aids sound and how loud they usually are. If you’re in any doubt or think that the sound or loudness has changed, get the hearing aids checked by your child’s audiologist or Teacher of the Deaf.

Cleaning and maintenance

You can clean conventional earmoulds using soap and water.

1. Detach the earmould’s flexible tubing from the hearing aid’s hard plastic elbow.
2. Wash the earmould in warm soapy water.
3. Run water through the tubing to remove debris. If there’s wax build-up in the end of the tubing, use a small brush or the eye of a sewing needle to remove it.
4. Dry out the earmould by using the puffer or leaving it overnight. Make sure the earmould is completely dry before reattaching it to the hearing aid.

Never clean earmoulds with disinfectant or bleaches, and do not leave them in warm places such as on radiators or in airing cupboards. Chemicals and heat will damage the earmould material.

If you notice a strong or unusual smell from an earmould, your child may have an ear infection. Take your child to your GP and tell your audiologist. Your child should not wear their hearing aid while their ear is infected.

While you’re washing the earmould, check that:

• the tubing isn’t kinked
• there are no holes or splits in the tubing or mould
• the tubing is soft and flexible and hasn’t become hard, brittle, or discoloured
• the tube is secure in the mould.

Replacing the earmould tubing

Tubing should be changed regularly, usually every four to six months. Ask your child’s audiologist or hearing aid clinic to show you how to replace the tubing and for some spare tubing to practise changing it. Tubing comes in different sizes, so make sure the spare tubing is the same size your audiologist has fitted.

Use the following steps to change the tubing yourself. If you don’t feel confident, your child’s audiologist can do it.

You can also watch a short video demonstrating how to change earmould tubing here:

1. Remove the old tubing from the elbow of the hearing aid. Using gentle force, pull the tubing from the outside face of the earmould (the side that faces out when you look at the earmould in your child’s ears). If the tubing has been glued in place, you may have to use a tiny screwdriver blade to ease the tube away from the earmould. Take care not to damage the earmould.
2. Take the new tubing and cut one end at an angle so it comes to a point.
3. Feed the tubing through back of the earmould. Keep pulling the tubing through until it stands upright on its own.
4. When you’re happy with the position of the tube, cut it off flush with the face of the meatal tip of the earmould. Then pull the tube back about half a millimetre.
5. Fit the earmould into your child’s ear and put the hearing aid in position on the ear. This will help you to see how much you need to cut off the end of the tubing to get a good fit. Make sure the tubing is not crushed or kinked on the bend where it leaves the earmould.

If you’re retubing earmoulds which use ‘libby’ tubing, these should be retubed from the meatal tip. This is the reverse of normal retubing.

If you find it difficult to thread the tubing into the earmould, you could buy an earmould threader from online sites such as Connevans.

Replacing batteries

Hearing aid batteries are ‘zinc-air’ and will be supplied with small sticky tabs on one side. You need to remove the sticker just before you put the batteries into the hearing aid.

If a new battery isn’t working, check that it’s been put in correctly. Look for the ‘ ’ sign on the battery and the compartment and match them up. If it’s still not working, you can use the battery tester from your hearing aid kit to check whether there’s any power left in the battery.

Batteries are extremely dangerous if swallowed. If you think your child may have swallowed a battery or inserted it into their ear or nose, take them to your nearest accident and emergency (A&E) department. Take along a packet of batteries so that the doctors know exactly what they’re dealing with.

More on batteries and battery safety.

Fixing common problems

Whistling (feedback)

Hearing aids occasionally make a whistling noise. This is known as feedback. Feedback happens when the microphone picks up the sound coming out of the hearing aid and amplifies it. Modern hearing aids use a range of internal feedback management systems to help reduce the amount of whistling.

The most likely reason for feedback is that the earmould isn’t a good fit. This allows sounds to ‘leak’ from around the earmould and be picked up by the hearing aid’s microphone. Because young children grow quickly, new impressions should be taken and earmoulds replaced regularly. For very young babies, this may be at least once a month.

There are other causes of feedback, and some can be solved more easily than others. Here are some possible causes.

Earwax

Earwax can cause feedback as more sound is reflected back out of the ear. If an earmould is a good fit but it has started to produce feedback, this could be an early sign of earwax. Do not try to remove the wax yourself as putting cotton buds into the ear can push the wax deeper into the ear canal. Ask your audiologist or GP to check the ears for wax instead.

Faulty elbow (tone hook)

The elbow is the plastic hook that fits between the hearing aid and the earmould tubing. If it’s faulty (for example, if it has a hole or is cracked, split or chewed) it’s very important to replace it with exactly the same type of elbow. You can get a replacement from the clinic that issued your child’s hearing aid.

Feedback from the aid itself

Take apart the hearing aid and the earmould. You can do this by gently pulling apart the soft tubing of the earmould from the hard plastic elbow of the hearing aid. After checking that the elbow is in good condition, press a finger over the end making a good seal. When the hearing aid is turned on, you shouldn’t get any feedback. This means that the aid is working properly. If you can hear whistling, there’s a problem inside the hearing aid, and you should return it to the clinic for repair.

Jaw movement

Jaw movement may make the earmould come out slightly and cause feedback. Try using petroleum jelly or a special cream, such as Otoferm. A small amount can help to make a seal between the earmould and the ear to reduce feedback.

If this doesn’t work, ask your child’s audiologist. They may suggest using a different earmould material, a new earmould with a different length meatal tip (the part that goes inside the ear canal), or a different length of earmould tubing.

Poor earmould

Problems can start when the earmould becomes hardened and cracked due to age. In this case, a new earmould needs to be fitted as soon as possible.

Small ear canal

Children with particularly narrow ear canals can sometimes have problems with feedback as sound reflects off the ear canal walls more easily. Certain groups of children are more likely to have narrow ear canals, such as children with Down’s syndrome.

If your child has particularly narrow ear canals and has continuous issues with feedback which prevent them from wearing their hearing aids, your audiologist might suggest they try a different kind of earmould or a bone conduction hearing device (BCHD). BCHDs are worn on a softband and don’t use an earmould at all.

Feeding young babies

Babies wearing behind-the-ear hearing aids can experience feedback when held close during feeding or when they’re lying down. You may need to hold your baby in a different position or take the hearing aid out for a short time. If feedback becomes a problem, talk to your child’s audiologist or ToD.

Hearing aids that have got wet

Although many hearing aids are now described as water resistant, never immerse them in water. Make sure they’re taken out of your child’s ears before swimming, bathing or showering. You can wipe over the casing with a dry cloth if needed.

If a hearing aid does accidentally get wet, open the battery drawer, remove the battery and place the hearing aid in a drying pot (which usually comes with your care kit). If the hearing aid still doesn’t work, you’ll need to return it to your audiologist.

Faulty hearing aids

If you find a fault with the hearing aid that you can’t easily fix yourself, contact your child’s audiologist. They’ll arrange to replace the hearing aid with the same model or will loan your child a similar hearing aid while theirs is sent for repair. If you bought the hearing aids privately, you’ll need to contact your hearing aid supplier.

Lost or damaged hearing aids

NHS hearing aids

If your child wears NHS hearing aids, your child’s audiologist should be able to offer an immediate replacement. If the earmould has been lost as well, a new one will need to be made. New earmoulds should be ready within one working week.

If the hearing aid was bought through the NHS, your child’s audiologist will have to order a new hearing aid from the manufacturer, unless they already have one in stock. They should replace the aid with one of the same make and model and offer to lend a different hearing aid while you’re waiting for a replacement.

The NHS provides all hearing aid equipment on a permanent loan basis. It’s the property of the NHS rather than the wearer. You’re expected to take reasonable care of your child’s hearing aids.

The NHS is legally allowed to charge for the loss or damage of equipment in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. However, most services don’t charge for the loss of children’s aids since it’s difficult to prove that loss or damage was due to negligence (the fault of the parent or child). If they do charge, the cost will usually be between £50 to £150 for each hearing aid and earmould, and they cannot charge families who get certain welfare benefits.

Sometimes, hearing aids are fitted and supplied by your local education service or provided by schools. The rules about NHS aids may not apply to hearing aids given by education services or schools.

Private hearing aids

Private hearing aids are your property, and you’re responsible for the full cost of any repair or replacement. If you have them insured, you’ll need to contact your insurance company for details of how to claim on your insurance policy.

Insuring hearing aids

NHS hearing aids cannot be insured as they’re the property of the NHS. However, some parents choose to insure against the risk of being charged for any loss. Most household insurance will cover this. Let your insurance company know and list the hearing aids as a named item on your policy.

When travelling abroad, you can buy travel insurance to cover your child’s hearing aids.