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The struggle to keep hearing aids on

Published Date: 27 Aug 2020

Image of a very young baby wearing a large hearing aid

I left my last blog talking about Alexa’s hearing aid, and wow, what a nightmare that was!

Alexa was only three months old when she got her hearing aid, and I still remember all the rules that I was told at the time.
- “Don’t let her wear it to bed.”
- “Don’t let her wear it in the car seat.”
- “Don’t let her wear it in the buggy.”
- “Don’t let her wear it in the rain.”
- “Don’t let her wear it anywhere that she will rub her head against something!”
At this point I was starting to wonder when she was allowed to wear it!

Anyway, we got it and put it on her ear. Alexa was a tiny baby at the time and this hearing aid just wasn’t fitting her at all, it would hang off and nothing we did would keep it round the back of her ear.

Do you remember that stage when your baby learnt what their hands did? When they wanted to pull anything and everything they could possibly get their hands on? This was what Alexa did with her hearing aid… I’m sure my step count was so high when I was trying to find a hearing aid that had been pulled out and thrown across the room. By this point as any child does, she turned it into a game, so I was constantly looking for the thing!

Alexa got to the stage where she didn’t want to wear this thing that was shoved in her ear and dangled down the side of her head. Many professionals would turn around to me and say: “You really need to get her wearing it more.” I would look at them and say: “Do you want to fight this kid all day?”

Alexa is known to have a very strong ‘character’ so if she doesn’t want something then you’re fighting a losing battle until one of you starts crying, and normally it’s me!Photo of little girl on a bike with a cochlear implant

I tried everything, the tape, the hairband, the ‘let’s pull at this instead of the thing that’s really annoying you’ and NOTHING worked. As Alexa got bigger, the more adults it took to keep the hearing aid on. In one of my appointments we had our regular Teacher of the Deaf, our speech and language therapist, and our key worker and we were all fighting to keep it on, but our darling little six-month-old Alexa beat us all and still managed to take it out.

When we started our cochlear implant journey, they would plug in the hearing aid and see ‘0’ activity in the past however long, and just look at me and give me a lecture. I just took it all in my stride, I knew what my kid was like.

So when we got the cochlear implant I panicked. I looked at my angelic little child and she looked back at me like butter wouldn’t melt, and I remember pleading for her to wear it…and she did! That little box was the best thing ever and she LOVES it. So, the moral of the story is, your child will always surprise you!

Kayleigh

Kayleigh lives with her partner Kia and their two daughters Brooke (7) and Alexa (2). She is currently studying part-time with the Open University doing Criminology and Forensic Psychology as well as being a full-time carer to Alexa. Alexa, who has microtia and atresia, is bilaterally profoundly deaf and currently wears one cochlear implant. She’ll soon be having an auditory brainstem implant fitted due to the cochlear implant not being successful. They’re all learning British Sign Language and supporting each other through Alexa’s journey.