About two to three of every 1,000 children in the United States are born with a detectable level of hearing loss in one or both ears, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
And babies in the NICU are at a higher risk for hearing problems than their non-NICU counterparts, said Carla Kurtz, an audiologist with St. Elizabeth Healthcare.
According to the American Journal of Otolaryngology, there are 11 risk factors associated with hearing loss among the neonatal population:
- Length of stay in the NICU (the longer the stay, the more likely the baby will have hearing issues)
- Respiratory distress syndrome (occurs almost exclusively in premature infants and is the sudden failure of the respiratory system)
- Retrolental fibroplasia (occurs most commonly in premature infants and can lead to blindness)
- Asphyxia (deprivation of oxygen to the body)
- Meconium aspiration (when the baby swallows his or her feces during birth, which can affect breathing)
- Neurodegenerative disorders (progressive loss of neurological function due to structural abnormalities of the central nervous system)
- Chromosomal abnormalities (Down syndrome is an example)
- Drug and alcohol abuse by the mom during pregnancy
- Maternal diabetes
- Multiple births
- Lack of prenatal care
If a hearing loss is discovered in a baby in the NICU at St. Elizabeth, Kurtz said, audiologists retest him or her about two weeks after birth. If the baby doesn’t pass the retest, the audiologists refer him or her to a pediatrician, and then to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, to pinpoint a cause ” to determine whether it’s a temporary loss or a permanent one that will require further testing and, possibly, hearing aids.
