Not sure if this is the right place to post but just found out our baby has unilateral hearing loss

[Dumbotheelephant]

Just looking for anyone with similar issues.

He failed his hearing tests in scbu and after a few visits to audiology we find out our 3 month old was diagnosed at 4 weeks old with permanent profound sensorineural hearing loss on in his left ear. His right ear he can hear at whisper level across all tones and frequencies.

We are awaiting referral to ENT to find out why this happened at have an appointment in March. Suspected that a drug called gentamicin caused it, used in most neonatal units to treat blood infection.

My issue is, nobody is offering any help? Our audiologist is saying it isn't an issue with speech and language until they go to school but surely it will be to late then if it is an issue?
I've read about baha systems and FA systems but our audiologist has recommended waiting to see how his speech develops?
Does anybody have any experience of this or anybody have and tips to help with speech and language?

I would advise speaking to the NDCS, and looking seeing whether he qualifies for a Hearing advisory teacher.

Dependant on where the sensori-neural loss is, BAHA may not help at all. (A problem after the middle ear (say a problem with the cochlea or cilia in the cochlea) and conductive listening devices will do nothing)

NDCS are very good as above says. They have a booklet especially about unilateral loss.

My daughter has profound loss in one ear but we didn’t have it properly diagnosed until she was 4 and could comply with hearing tests. You might be ok with speech until school age like your audiologist said. It might depend in where you are bringing your baby up? If you make sure you keep background noise minimal and try and speak face to face then the good ear picks up normal sound. Also be aware that s/he won’t have directional hearing. I was forever frightening my DD when she was little because she couldnt hear things coming!

Technology wise, we tried an aid in her bad ear for a year or so, but gave up when it didn’t seem to benefit and DD was fed up with it squeeling. Audiologist said they are not that great for profound loss anyway. We also tried a radio aid (Roger Pen) which feeds sound into the good ear. I liked that but we had to self fund it and it broke! We’re currently trialling a CROS aid (which is funded, madly) which also feeds sound into her good ear. We’re currently not sure what (if any) technology my DD will use, but she is quite happy with her hearing and coping without aids at primary school. She does sit at the front and teachers are aware etc.

It is probably wise to be very clued up about speech development. Afasic are a brilliant speech charity and they have ‘stage of development’ guides. That way you can be on the ball if you notice any delays and you can get trying technology sooner rather than later. My DD had speech issue but they were completely unrelated to hearing loss (cleft palate and dyspaxia).

Feel free to PM. All the best

I've contacted the NDCS today and they where amazing! They've booked me onto a group where we can meet people who have also been newly diagnosed, they've helped me pursue a teacher of the deaf for my little one, have put me in contact with my local charity so I can meet parents in similar situations and their audiologist is ringing me next week to talk through his diagnosis.

Thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction as they actually took me seriously and gave me advice on who and where to ask for help.

Yeh - sounds fab