Any experience of hearing aids in a 1.5 yo?

[AmandinePoulain]

My 19mo dd2 was diagnosed with glue ear after failing her newborn screening hearing test. Since then we've been seen regularly by audiology where we've been consistently told she has moderate hearing loss due to the glue ear. Up until now they've been watching and waiting but it's clearly not improving so this morning the audiologist finally agreed to an ENT referral. Unfortunately there's an 8 month waiting list so I asked about hearing aids for the meantime as I don't want her speech to suffer (although so far she's a little chatterbox so she's adjusted to the loss very well ). My thinking is that if she will need aids long term I'd rather get her used to them whilst she's still little (she's very stubborn and strong willed ), and that when it comes to making a decision about aids vs grommets at least we'll have had some experience of the aids.

The fitting is in a few weeks but I have no idea what to expect - how do they do it and how long does it take? And then how long to actually make them? Plus any experience of how toddlers cope with aids would be great!

Thanks

[Catrin]

To do the ear moulds, they put a tiny bit of sponge tied with string into her ear (the string hangs out of the ear). They then mix the putty and syringe it in, wait till its dry then use the string to pull it out. It is not painful, apparently but can be an odd sensation. She is prime age for being resistant to having it done, so prepare for yelling! They then get sent off and made into the proper moulds.
Once they are done, you will get called to have the aids fitted. Who knows how long this may take, though it is normally fairly fast. The actual appointment takes a while, as there is a lot of technical stuff they have to do to programme the hearing aids.
They whistle hideously if the mould is not in the ear properly. You will be on your last nerve from the whistling some days. Toddlers do tend to pull them out a lot, particularly in the car. Keep an eye on her pulling them out, as the batteries are tiny. Keeping the hearing aids in consistently is a battle all us parents have had to endure - a friend of mine eventually put her toddler ds in a deerstalker hat! Otofirm can help (cream you put on the mould) as can tape behind the ear (cannot remember name).
Re grommets - hideous as it is to think of your dd having an op, it really isn;t that bad, and if successful makes a huge difference. Dd's ear drum perforated 7 times one year due to infections, so grommets was great for her.

You get used to all the hearing aid stuff very quickly - it seems a bit daunting the first day or so, but then just becomes normal.

[AmandinePoulain]

Thanks for sharing your experience. We've just had a restless night due to her 3rd ear infection this winter, she sounded as if she was in so much pain , what's made me cross is that despite having a good look in her ears the audiologist didn't notice/mention the infection that the GP diagnosed a few hours later , I'm so glad I trusted my instincts and took her!