NICU babies and hearing

A visit to a different audiology clinic this week – the one at the Royal Children’s Hospital.

Our son passed his newborn hearing screening test with flying colours, but he is still going to need his hearing monitored pretty closely over the next few years. Makes sense, you’re probably thinking, given his mother is deaf and wears two cochlear implants. But, oddly enough, my hearing loss has nothing to do with his situation. Rather, it’s his stay in the NICU that doubles his chances for hearing problems – not the noise exposure, like I initially thought, but his dependence on antibiotics and on oxygen for a prolonged period of time.

He passed his auditory brainstem test this week also, hearing sounds beautifully at 20db in both ears. He also passed the pitch testing across the different frequencies . (No kidding, given this baby grunts at us – “eh-eh” – when incorrect notes are played on the piano!)

He has been following the sounds of our voices since the early days, turning his head towards us when we speak. He startles easily at sounds, both soft and loud ones. He’ll jump (and grunt) at the cuckoo clock if it has woken him up. I’ve also seen him startle at Jason coughing, both when he’s in the same room and when he’s in a different room altogether. He responds and settles to music, especially the piano. I’ve put him to sleep playing Clair De Lune both on the piano and off a recording – he might recognise it from when he was in the womb. He hates some music. (Don’t bother playing him the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy – guess The Nutcracker Ballet is off the cards for the future!) His eyes are fixated on mine when I sing to him. He also loves the sound of his own voice – he squeals lots and makes loud (pretend) spluttering sounds to get our attention.  He can be three rooms away from his bottle warmer but when that little “beep-beep” starts going he will spit out his dummy and bounce his arms out for his food.

Still nice to get the test results though, to rule anything out for now. His next hearing test will be when he’s 12 months old unless we notice anything sooner. For now, I’m off to try another song … wonder if he’ll fall asleep to the Richmond Football Club’s theme song. ;-)