Nolan has been wearing his hearing aids for a full 12 months, so one would expect that he would be quite used to them and would leave them in his ears for more than 20 minutes at a time. The pilot cap has lost its power to keep the aids in, because Nolan can rip it off in 3 seconds flat. If it is triple knotted, he will pull his ears out from behind the edges of the cap and rip his aids out.
I've thought about trying these caps, but they are $30 per hat and I have a feeling they would be no match for Nolan's excellent fine motor skills. So we are now at an impasse: Nolan pulls his aids out, we replace them, he pulls them out... repeat ad infinitum.
Some might suggest we get to the bottom of why he is pulling them out. We simply have no clue, as we know his hearing level has recently returned to previous levels and the aids are properly set. Perhaps the constant noise level provided by our three year old bothers him? Or he hears "well enough" (from his point of view) without them?
We are getting new earmolds on Thursday, so perhaps that will help keep those aids snugly in his ears. In the meantime, his time spent in aids is decreasing as we fervently try to keep them in as long as possible. At least he keeps them in during speech therapy.
Aside from super glue or some other permanent measure of adhesion, any suggestions are welcome (and don't think I haven't thought about the super glue)!
10 comments:
Oooo am I feeling your pain! Aiden is like Houdini in getting his aids out with that cap snuggly on his head! I wish I had some advice for you, but I'm interested to see what others say!! Good luck to you!
sorry, no real advice. Miles went through a phase of taking the hearing aids out and sucking on them but lately he keeps them in for the most part. When he does pull them out, he's telling us he's ready for sleep. I only have methods of not losing them to suggest, nothing for getting them to keep them in. Good luck!
Having worn HAs for 40 something years, the earmold can be painful at times. My suggestion is try file the tip and see if that would solve the problem. If not, a new one should be made. Good luck!
I am not sure...I was going to say that maybe he is getting a lot of feedback (if he has outgrown the molds)? Or maybe if the molds are too small they are uncomfortable. Are they hard plastic molds, or soft, pliable? We had some of the hard plastic ones, once, and one of them got a chip in it, and actually scratched the inside of his ear when it got bumped.
Henry never went through this "pulling out" phase...but he was a little older. He was two when he started wearing them. The only time he took them out was when he went in our moonbounce. And then I suspect the flopping around of the aids drove him crazy, so he just took 'em out!
Good luck. This too, shall pass. It is annoying as heck to go through, but it will pass.
The earmolds are quite small, so that may be part of the problem! We don't have too many issues with feedback because Nolan's hearing hits the mild range in one ear and moderate in the other in the high frequencies. His Unitrons also have a great feedback cancelling quality! They do "flop" quite a lot with the smaller earmolds, though, and maybe that is what bothers him...
We currently have silicone earmolds (nice and squishy)so I don't think they're causing any discomfort. We see the audiologist on Thursday so it won't be long until we get new ones. Perhaps it will just take a few more months for him to leave them alone!
How frustrating! I hope he outgrows it soon to maintain your sanity! I wish I had suggestions too, but no such luck. I hope the new earmolds help!
Tate would occasionally take his HA's out and tell me his ears were "fweaty" (sweaty). I think sometimes his ears got itchy and he wanted to put his fingers in there and scratch.
Even the squishy silicon molds can irritate, sometimes. They may push too deeply into his ears? Or have a little bump or ridge in the mold that is irritating.
Or course, it's all fine and good to talk about alleviating discomfort when chances are he's just plain being a toddler!
Good luck :0)
Julie
this is so frustrating! i know monrovia has gotten quite adept at pulling hers off, pilot cap and all. i hope you find a solution!
My sympathies! Ben is usually pretty good about leaving his in, although he goes through spells of pulling it (or his CI headpiece)off. I think it's toddler-hood. He tends to do it when we've been ignoring him for a few minutes and he wants to get our attention!
There was a debate on cicircle awhile back about how to respond. Some say put it back on immediately, so you don't lose any hearing time. Others say let it go for a little while, don't over-react, lest you feed into the power game.
I've been waiting a few minutes and then putting them back in- it is definitely a toddler-ish behavior. It has become a bit of a game because he'll laugh and run when he sees the aids in my hand! Sigh...
Another thing to grow out of, I suppose. Though I will be glad when he is able to communicate when things are uncomfortable or not functioning properly!
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