Fetal Period The first three months of pregnancy are the most critical to ensure that the fetus’ ears develop properly and that the baby is born with healthy hearing. It is important to guard against infections during this stage, as many infections can lead to abnormal hearing development that may occur while the baby is in the womb. The most important things to prevent during pregnancy are rubella, influenza, herpes virus, cytomegalovirus, and syphilis spirochetes. During the early stages of pregnancy, pregnant mothers should minimize going to crowded places and especially avoid contact with patients who have been infected with the virus. Some pregnant mothers are also worried that if they have to go to very noisy places, such as movie theaters and dance halls, will it affect the hearing of the fetus? Generally speaking, after the 6th month of pregnancy, the fetus begins to have preliminary hearing, and at this time, you can consciously play some music for them to listen to. However, because of the many amniotic fluids, the fetus can hear very little sound, so the outside noisy environment generally will not affect their hearing development. School age Don’t pull out your ears at will School-age children have full mobility and are full of curiosity about things, so the most likely impact on ear health at this time is accidental injury. Parents can inform their children of some common sense of the body and develop good hygiene habits. For example, tell your child that everyone has some earwax in their ears, which usually falls out on its own, and not to use hairpins, ear spoons, matchsticks, etc. to pull out their ears. Some children may put things such as beans and small beads into their ears, which parents must handle with care. If it’s a ball-shaped foreign body, don’t try to handle it yourself, as you’re likely to poke it deeper and deeper. If it is a small piece of paper, you can gently remove it with tweezers. However, for children who are not very cooperative, it is also best to send them to the hospital. Small flying insects can also be dangerous as they flutter around inside the ear and are likely to damage the eardrum and cause a perforation. To deal with flying insects in the ear, you can put a little bit of sterilizing alcohol in the ear to kill them, and then go to the hospital to have them removed. If you don’t have sterilizing alcohol, you can also use a little bit of edible vegetable oil to drop into the ear. In addition, parents should control their emotions when they are angry, and never physically punish their children (slapping), as this can lead to tympanic membrane perforation and hearing loss. Infancy Beware of the baby’s “silent signals” From the moment of croaking, the baby will begin to use their ears to perceive the outside world. However, many parents lack the ability to judge whether their hearing is healthy or not. Some parents wait until their children are two or three years old and still can’t speak before they notice, and then go to the hospital to check, they have already missed the best time for treatment. Therefore, a good newborn hearing screening is a strong guarantee of a child’s hearing health. Babies born in the hospital usually receive hearing screening before they are discharged. But back home, parents of newborns still need to observe carefully. If you find that your baby has any of the following signs, you should take him for another hearing screening in time: 1. Your baby does not respond or is unresponsive when his mother calls him. 2.The baby’s ability to recognize the position of the sound source is poor, for example, he will not turn his head or body in the direction of the sound source. 3.Baby learns to speak with delayed and slurred pronunciation. 4, listening to others speak, like to stare at the mouth of the speaker, which is a unique deaf people “read lips” performance. 5, adults and babies talk to the baby, he often indifferent expression, cold response. If the newborn after a series of tests found that hearing problems, parents do not have to worry too much, after timely and active treatment, many can be recovered. Parents need to be aware that spitting up or choking during infancy can lead to ear infections, which can affect hearing. Therefore, when breastfeeding, avoid lying down to breastfeed, and it is better to hold the baby up to breastfeed. After breastfeeding, pick up the baby and gently burp to avoid spitting up. In early childhood, pyogenic infections are the most dangerous. In early childhood, between the ages of 2 and 5, ear infections are the biggest cause of deafness. Inside the ear is a thin tube called the Eustachian tube, which leads to the nasopharynx. In young children, the Eustachian tube is short, wide and straight, making it easy for bacteria from the nose and throat to invade and cause infections. Many conditions allow bacteria to easily enter the middle ear through the Eustachian tube. For example, common colds can cause an increase in nasal discharge and drooling, and infections in the nose and throat can affect the ear. If treatment is not timely, the inflammation of the pharynx and nose spreads to the Eustachian tube, and once the pathogenic bacteria invade the tympanic chamber through the Eustachian tube, causing infection in the middle ear cavity, it may develop into acute suppurative otitis media. Therefore, during the child’s cold, parents must pay attention to observe the changes in his (her) condition, once found that the ear pain, a sense of obstruction, stuffy feeling, tinnitus, hearing loss and other symptoms, should promptly seek medical attention. Once treatment is delayed, it can lead to secondary bacterial infection. If there is pus flowing out of the external ear canal, it means that the eardrum has been perforated and purulent otitis media has formed. After perforation of the eardrum, it is important not only to take active anti-infection treatment, but also to keep the external ear canal dry and clean. Normally, parents should be careful not to let water enter the child’s ear canal when showering, washing the child’s hair or taking the child swimming. If water inadvertently gets into the ear, have the child tilt his or her head to that side and let the water drain out on its own. Noise in life is also an important issue that affects young children’s hearing. Research has found that many of the sound-making toys on the market are too loud and can affect children’s hearing health. Therefore, parents in the purchase of sound toys must pay attention to: should first put the toy in front of their own a few centimeters, if you do not feel the toy sound harsh, it proves that its baby is also safe. Secondly, parents should minimize the baby to dance halls and other entertainment venues, the volume of the home theater should also be properly controlled. If your child loves to watch movies, don’t do it more than once a month. Some children also like to imitate adults wearing headphones to listen to music, time is also easy to lead to hearing damage. Therefore, we should try to avoid letting children use headphones to listen to things, have to use, headphone volume should be controlled at 40-60 decibels, time each time no more than 60 minutes. There are some medications that can also affect hearing, especially anti-inflammatory medications such as gentamicin, streptomycin, neomycin, and butylkanamycin. Generally children under 6 years old try to avoid the use of these drugs, must be used, parents should know the specific harm of these drugs, according to the child’s physical condition to trade-off whether to use.