What are the causes of hearing loss in children?

Statistics from the National Infant and Toddler Hearing Center: A child with normal hearing can master about 750 words by the age of three. If a child with hearing loss is discovered at birth and undergoes early language rehabilitation training, this child will be able to master about 750 words by the age of three. A child can master nearly 500 words at one time, which can almost reach the language level of a normal child; if a child is found to have hearing loss when he is six months old, he can master more than 300 words by the age of three after language rehabilitation; if the child is two years old It was only then that I discovered that I had hearing loss, and after further language rehabilitation training, I could only master a dozen words.

What are the causes of hearing loss in children?
The causes of hearing problems can be classified into two categories: genetic factors and environmental factors. There are mainly seven reasons:

1. Heredity
According to 2010 statistics, my country’s congenital The incidence rate of sexual hearing loss is 2.19‰, half of which are caused by deafness genes. Therefore, couples who are preparing to become pregnant should not neglect pre-pregnancy check-ups, especially couples who are hearing-impaired, have a family history of hearing impairment, or have given birth to children with hearing impairment. Genetic screening for hearing impairment before pregnancy can prevent or reduce the risk of hearing impairment. The birth of a child.

2. Pregnancy
Viral infections in early pregnancy (including rubella, cytomegalovirus or herpes zoster, etc.), use of ototoxic drugs during pregnancy (streptomycin, gentamicin, Kanamycin, etc.) and high-risk pregnant women (diabetes, chronic nephritis, hypertension, hypothyroidism, etc.) will all have an impact on children's hearing

3. Infancy and early childhood

If a newborn is born with severe asphyxia, severe jaundice, severe amniotic fluid contamination, etc., it can also lead to hearing loss. Premature infants are less mature and have a higher rate of hearing loss than full-term infants. The use of certain ototoxic drugs in newborns may also damage hearing. Babies should receive a hearing screening about 3 days after birth to detect hearing problems early. During the growth and development of children, infectious diseases (meningitis, mumps, etc.), ototoxic drugs, head trauma, noise, and otitis media are the main factors leading to hearing loss. Some hereditary hearing losses, such as large vestibular aqueduct syndrome, can also cause hearing loss in childhood due to colds, fever or head collisions.

4. Ear trauma
The ear consists of three parts: the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. Auditory receptors and position receptors are located in the inner ear. Hearing is accomplished by the joint activities of the ear, auditory nerve and auditory center.. The structure of the ear is delicate and fragile, especially the auricle is exposed on both sides of the head, and is prone to various direct traumas. Constantly picking out the ears, children putting foreign objects into the external auditory canal, etc. can easily cause damage to the ears and affect hearing.

5. Noise

Noise is one of the important causes of hearing impairment.

6. Hearing impairment caused by drug poisoning

Ototoxic drugs mainly damage the inner ear and affect the two important functions of the ear: balance and hearing. In the past, one of the important causes of hearing impairment (especially deaf-mutes) in my country was ototoxic drug poisoning. In recent years, with the development of medicine, the number of such patients has gradually decreased. Among ototoxic drugs, aminoglycoside antibiotics are most likely to cause hearing loss. Common ones include: streptomycin, kanamycin, gentamicin, neomycin, etc., among which neomycin is the most toxic. If the ototoxicity is mainly in the vestibule, the patient will have balance imbalance as the main manifestation, such as unsteady walking, dizziness, etc. If the damage is mainly to the cochlea, the patient's main symptoms will be hearing loss and tinnitus. Because children often fail to detect hearing loss in time, which often leads to delayed speech development, careless parents often think that "elegant people are slow to speak" and delay the best time for intervention. Ototoxic antibiotics have obvious individual susceptibility, that is, some people use them for a long time without affecting their hearing, while some people may suffer from severe hearing impairment after using them in a small dose. Ototoxic drug poisoning has a certain hereditary nature and is often inherited from the maternal line. Hearing impairment occurs during medication, may also be discovered after discontinuation of medication, and may continue to worsen 1 year after discontinuation of medication.

Some parents should avoid bad practices in educating their children, such as hitting children on the head, which can cause traumatic deafness and should be corrected. For young children Children must also be cared for carefully to avoid head injuries, which may cause damage to the inner ear and lead to deafness.