How to Protect Your Child’s Hearing?

You can hear, feel, see, taste all because of your sense organs. No wonder organs are important to humans; many people consider their sight only as an important sense of organ but imagine how it might feel when you cannot hear.

With the increase in technological advances, many people are focusing on preventing their children’s eyesight. People forget that technological advancement has equal harmful effects on hearing.

Due to the increase in headphones, high-end machinery like lawn care, concerts, loud events have caused hearing damage. In comparison to adults, children are at more risk of losing their hearing power.

The reason behind it is, children spend more time on their devices, hearing music, watching movies, playing games with loud audio. Besides spending time on digital gadgets, they are exposed to loud music outdoor, like restaurants, pubs, concerts, shopping malls, etc.

Ways To Protect Your Child’s Hearing

Due to the increase in loud noise exposure, parents are concerned about protecting their child’s hearing. Here I have mentioned few tips to protect your child’s hearing:

Encourage Your Kids to Limit Their Device Volume

How often are your kids on their phones? You may have to yell at your kids by saying not to make the device volume loud. They either blast play music while surfing social media, doing homework, or doing any house chores.

If they are not playing music, they can even spend time watching movies or playing games which have loud noise. No matter what they are doing on their device, their volume level is always at a maximum which can increase the risk of hearing loss among kids.

Hence, it is essential for you to encourage your kids to limit their device volume. You need to teach your kids to keep their device volume as low as possible. It would be best if you teach your kids how they can help themselves as well as the people around them by limiting their device volume.

Set Time Limit

The next way to protect your child’s hearing is by limiting their device usage time. You may not be around your kids all the time; even when you ask your child to limit the sound level of their device, they may not obey you. For this reason, it is better for you to set a time limit for device usage among kids.

You can either manually set a time limit on device usage or use parental control apps that help you to set a time limit. Many parental control apps like fenced.ai, Qustodio, Bark, Net Nanny keeps a record of the total time of device usage.

You can even make rules like if your kids are exposed to loud music for a day or night, then restrict loud music for a week. For instance, if your kids visit concerts during the weekend, then restrict loud noise throughout the weekdays.

Teach Your Kids How Loud is Loud Noise

If you say your teen not to make sound loud, they may reply to you, “this is not loud.” Teenagers do not feel the music playing on their device are loud unless someone asks them to make the music low. Your child might not know how loud noise is a loud noise, so you better teach your kids how loud noise can be too loud noise.

You should show them instances that how loud noise can damage their hearing. It is better you check your child’s hearing power before it gets to let. If your child does not hear you when you are calling them from just a few meters away while they are playing music, then it can be clear that your kids are playing their music too loud.

Provide Them Good Quality of Headphone

The quality of your kid’s earphones also affects your kid’s hearing power. Kids these days prefer to listen to music, play games, watch movies keeping their earphones or headphone on. The amount of time your teens keep their earphones or headphones on is undetectable. Also, not to forget earphones and headphones are harmful to our ears.

Low-quality earphones and headphones are dangerous to the listener. Therefore, encourage your kids to have better quality earphones or headphones. While purchasing earphones or headphones, make sure they are not just comfortable. They are clearer. Your headphones should be noise-canceling headphones so that you can hear the sound even in a small volume. Hence, it’s better for you to use good quality headphones.

Keep an eye on Your Child Activities

Just encouraging your kids to maintain a balanced screen time and asking them to limit their noise will not help your kids to control your their habit. They may listen to loud music or disturbing noises, so it would be better if you keep an eye on your child’s activities.

As mentioned above, it’s better you use apps like parental control to keep an eye on your kid’s device activities. Parental control apps keep track of kids’ device activities in real-time. If your kids spend more time than required, then you will get notified by the app. You can also see if they are listing to loud music or watching a video that contains disturbing sounds.

Types of Hearing Protector Device

Just limiting digital devices won’t help to protect your kids’ hearing power; external factors like noise from your surrounding are also equally responsible for damaging your and child’s hearing power. For instance, if you live near an airport or factories, then you might get disturbed by airplanes and the noises of machinery. Many people have even reported hearing loss caused due to loud noises that they are surrounded by.

Hence, it is highly recommended for people, especially those who love around cities area to wear hearing aids. There are many hearing protector devices available in drug stores, groceries, medical stores, and so on. You can get hearing protector devices in all the size from children size to adult size. Here are some of the best hearing protector devices that you can choose for yourself and for your child for safe listening.

Earplugs

Earplugs are the most popular hearing protector devices that you can get. Earplugs are small devices that you can insert into your ear and fits perfectly into your ear canal. If you want, you can even customize your earplugs by visiting an audiologist or health professional. It is one of the most inexpensive hearing protection devices that you can get.

You can get earplugs of different types. Some are reusable, while some are not. Here are some of the popular earplugs that you can get:

Foam Earplug

These are earplugs that are made of foams and are only one-time use. These kinds of earplugs look small but expand as you insert them on your ear canal. Foam earplugs are easily available in the market. You can even see these types of earplugs used by factories and construction sites workers.

However, this kind of earplugs does have some disadvantages like, it can irritate your kid’s ear. And you can even get ear infections if you use earplugs with dirty hands.

Pre-molded reusable earplugs

The next kind of earplugs that you get are pre-molded reusable earplugs to protect your child from loud noise. You can get pre-molded reusable earplugs in silicone, rubber, and plastic. Pre-molded earplugs come in different shapes and sizes, which means you can get yours in your size, which perfectly fits you.

Many people prefer to use reusable earplugs as they are inexpensive, reusable, and comes in different sizes. You can increase and decrease the sound intensity of these earplugs.

Universal Earplugs

Universal earplugs is another popular earplug that is mostly used by musicians. These kinds of earplugs provide different layers which prevent you from being completely shut off from surrounding. You can use these types of earplugs while studying, sleeping, traveling, swimming, and so on. It’s better for you to wear earplugs like universal earplugs if you need full concentration.

Universal earplugs are said to be less irritating compared to form-based earplugs. The price of universal earplugs starts ranges from $15-$30. Universal earplugs were first introduced by Alpine Hearing Protection.

Waxballs

Another kind of earplugs that you can use is waxballs, which are slightly different than earplugs. Waxballs are an effective hearing protection device that prevents hearing loud noises from the outside environment. You can mold these devices as per your preference.

Talking about the price of waxballs, it is pretty expensive than form earplugs. Waxballs are usually non-reusable, which means you can use them only one time. Many people use this waxballs while sleeping.

Earmuffs

Probably the most common type of ear protector used is earmuffs. Earmuffs are like noise-canceling headphones which have a flexible headband and plastic cups. These kinds of noise-canceling devices reduce external noise with sound-attenuating material. The soft ear cushions cover the ear, which prevents external noise.

These devices are easy to use for people of all the age. However, this might not be effective for people who wear glasses as it creates some uncomfortableness behind their ears. Also, your hairstyle might get misplaced due to earmuffs.

When To Use Hearing Protector Device?

You do not have to use a hearing protector device all the time. If you are in a peaceful place, you do not have to use such devices. Hearing protector devices need to be used when you are at a place where there are noises that are loud enough to damage your hearing. Here are when you need to use a hearing protector device:

• While you are at concerts, fireworks events, movies, and so on.
• If you are playing some musical instruments.
• When you are traveling in airplanes, trains.
• While attending sporting events shooting, footballs, cricket, and so on.

Conclusion

Summing up, as a parent, it is your responsibility to encourage your kids to practice healthy hearing habits. Your child follows whatever you do, so it would be better if you start to protect your hearing so that your kids will do the same. For instance, if you wear earplugs, your child wants to do the same, which helps to protect your child’s hearing.

Apart from that, you need to teach your child some health tips, teach them healthy hearing habits, and so on. Also, sometimes, when your little ones are having problems with their hearing, they might not realize; hence you need to pay attention to your little one health. Also, it is better if you perform the hearing test of your young ones on a regular basis.