What could be the reason for mild high frequency hearing loss in my daughter?

Question

Hello doctor,

My 9-year-old daughter has recently been diagnosed with a mild high frequency hearing loss in both ears. Her hearing levels are only very slightly below normal and it is not impacting her day to day in a noticeable way so, for the moment, the audiology team are just monitoring it.

My worry is that I accidentally caused it when she was a baby. There was one time when she was a young baby (maybe 2 months old) and she was in a rear facing car seat in the front of my car, i.e her ears were near the speakers at the front of the car. I turned the engine on and the radio blasted out really loud, I think it was probably on volume 12 or 13. I turned it down straight away and she did not cry but now I feel awful that I may have damaged her hearing. Please could you tell me how likely it is a one-off incident like this would have caused it?

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I understand your worry. I would say it is possible to develop such a hearing loss due to what we call acoustic trauma, noise-induced. However, we can never be sure whether the loss is due to that incident or due to some other or if the loss was congenitally present. What you can do to prevent further deterioration is prevent her from listening to loud music, keep her away from loud sounds, try and use noise isolation buds when there is excessive noise outside, eat a healthy diet and meditate. Rather than worrying about what could have caused the loss, I think it will be prudent to prevent any further damage to the ear and guide your daughter on the right path to achieve what she wants to.

I hope this helps.

What could be the reason for mild high frequency hearing loss in my daughter?

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