Medical experts will always recommend getting babies screened

In the U.S., each year about 12,000 babies are born with irreversible hearing loss. The National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management has data which shows a ratio of three babies for every 1,000 having hearing loss of some kind at birth, making this the most common birth defect.

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The degree of hearing loss can range from being unable to hear at all to trouble in hearing only some soft sounds. It is quite a routine matter to provide some treatment, in conjunction with hearing aids, to children suffering from hearing loss.

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Cochlear implants are the only option in extreme cases. Cochlear implants work where hearing aids fail to deliver, because unlike hearing aids, they act directly on the auditory nerve. The original level of hearing can never be brought back even after using the best of these devices. Medical experts will always recommend getting babies screened. The first few months of a baby's life can be very critical in developing language skills and hence the chosen therapies need to be started within the first six months. A newly introduced procedure is helpful in detecting hearing loss in babies right after birth. In case hearing loss is spotted within six months after a baby's birth, modern procedures are able to make sure that language development proceeds almost normally. In a vast multitude of cases, hearing loss is detected in children only after they are 22 to 26 months old. Hearing problems get accidentally discovered when children start having problems with speaking or with their language development. A new procedure can now help screen newborn babies for hearing problems even before they are allowed to the hospital. Otacoustic Emissions can now be used to detect hearing problems in newborn babies. A soft probe is used for delivering sounds into the ear canal. The probe also incorporates a microphone that picks up an echo of the sounds produced in the inner ear, or cochlea. What used to take 10 minutes to screen each using a conventional procedure now takes merely 10 seconds. Babies failing the OAE test prompt the doctors to administer the Auditory Brainstem Response test. In the ABR test, the baby's ears receive sounds through a disposable earphone, and the auditory nerve's responses to these sounds are measured through three painless electrodes placed on the baby's head and shoulders. Screening each ear takes just 15 minutes. Doctors make sure that babies are asleep before starting these tests. Very many babies are not tested in this manner till they are about 2 years old and their parents start realizing their speech and language related problems. Therefore, without leaving things to chance, it is best to screen all babies. Children will be able to develop their language skills better and also lead near normal lives forever. If hearing loss is significant, as revealed by both these tests, babies are essentially referred to an audiologist for diagnostic testing. Roughly two percent of the babies need to be sent to an audiologist for diagnostic testing. Infants as small as between 2 and 3 months of age can now be fitted with amplifications to overcome their hearing loss. Early help is the key to ensuring normal development of these children.