hearing test

[Saacsmum]

Isaac is finally going in for his hearing test at the hospital. They have sent me a letter to say he has to be asleep when they do it! Very stressed about getting him to sleep and keeping him asleep for this (would it confuse him to give back his dummy just for this occasion?) The test is called an Auditory Brainstem Response Test. Anyone know what they do for this.

[coppertop]

I'm not sure if this is the same test but ds1 had his ears tested at 4 weeks old due to our family history of deafness. The one they wanted to do meant that he had to be asleep. They attached earphone-type things to his ears and were measuring the way the sounds bounced off his eardrums (or something like that). He had to be asleep because any noise the baby made could potentially affect the results.

Ds1 of course refused to sleep and after 1.5hrs of the audiology team trying to get him to sleep they had to abandon that particular test. Instead they did one that required attaching small pads to different areas of his head (sorry I don't know the technical terms!) and attached these to a monitor. These apparently recorded the brain's response to sounds and didn't require ds1 to be asleep.

This was all a world away from ds2's hearing test which involved a set of headphones and a laptop-style machine and took literally 2 minutes. He needed to be quiet for this one but not asleep.

[chonky]

My dd had this test too, when she was about 4months. It was just as Coppertop describes for her ds1, except she was sedated before the test started so was fast asleep throughout (phew!). The sedation wore off really quickly, and we were home within a couple of hours of the test completing.
Hope it goes smoothly for you & Isaac.

[geekgrrl]

my dd has had ABRs several times, first time round she was 1 month and slept right through it, but their machine was broken and at first they told us she probably had profound hearing loss!
And then they realised that the computer was playing up...
Second time, at 5 months old and at a different audiology department with more modern equipment - basically attached to a laptop. She slept right through it and passed.
Third time under GA at 1.5 years old. Failed it (middle ear dysfunction had set in by then).

How old is Isaac? it is a pain getting them to sleep at the right time, any chance of going to hospital a few hours early so that if he sleeps in the car he will be ready for another nap by the time his appointment comes?

[Saacsmum]

Hi, thanks am feeling more reassured about the whole thing now. Isaac is 4.5 months and is not the best at sleeping away from home but we will just see what happens.

[popsycal]

DS had thid at 4 weeks....rushing off now but will pop back later//