Hearing loss is the most common congenital birth defect worldwide, with permanent hearing loss accounting for approximately 20% of all birth defects, with an incidence of 1 in 1,000 to 3 in 1,000. Language development is predicated on auditory development, and hearing impairment in infancy can wreak havoc on a baby’s future language learning, resulting in a baby who is both deaf and mute. With the soundness of national medical care, newborns are required to undergo hearing screening at birth, and babies who do not pass the hearing test can be treated promptly and effectively to reduce the degree of disability. However, a large proportion of hearing-impaired babies are caused by improper parenting practices. What behaviors can damage the baby’s hearing? 1. Improper ear pulling Many parents are used to pulling out their baby’s ears after a while, but improper ear pulling can easily damage the outer ear canal and cause otitis externa or ear boils. If you are not careful, you may also cause “tympanic membrane perforation”, which can damage your baby’s hearing. In fact, in most cases, ear wax does not need to be pulled out, it is good for protecting your baby’s hearing, and it can fall out on its own with the vibration of the head and the opening and closing of the mouth. However, some parents may wonder if they should not take out their baby’s ear wax. Of course not! If you find that your baby has a lot of earwax, or even if it fills up the ear canal and cannot be discharged on its own, you can take your baby to the hospital and ask the ear, nose and throat doctor to flush the ear canal to help remove it. The human body has a structure called the eustachian tube, which is a channel connecting the middle ear cavity to the throat. However, during infancy, the eustachian tube is relatively flat and the lumen is wide and short. If a mother lets her baby drink milk lying down, once choking occurs, the milk will easily choke through the eustachian tube into the middle ear and cause otitis media, which is one of the main causes of hearing damage to babies. 3, to the baby pinch the nose to fill the medicine for the baby is not willing to take medicine after the disease, I think most parents are using the “pinch the nose hard to fill” method. However, this method will make the baby struggle and cry, which will easily lead to nasal secretions or medicine entering the middle ear through the eustachian tube, causing otitis media. In addition, the baby’s nasal cavity is delicate, if the parents pinch the nose strength control is not good, but also damage the baby’s nasal mucosa and blood vessels. 4, the abuse of antibiotics baby resistance is very easy to suffer from a cold fever, especially upper whistle infection. Seeing the baby sick many parents will be more anxious, in order to let the baby recover as soon as possible, parents will choose antibiotics. Aminoglycoside antibiotics are ototoxic and can damage children’s hearing, and too much can lead to deafness and a lifetime of hearing loss. How to protect your baby’s hearing? 1, do not let the baby lie down to eat milk The baby’s eustachian tube is flat, lying down to eat milk is easy to choke and cough, milk choked into the eustachian tube into the ear cavity, triggering otitis media. Not only choking baby rhinitis, oral diseases are very likely to lead to otitis media. This is a very high prevalence of otitis media in infants and children, and is also a major factor in hurting your baby’s hearing. 2. Don’t just dig your baby’s ears Many mothers see earwax inside their baby’s ears and can’t resist the itch to clean them up. In fact, the presence of some earwax in your baby’s ears is actually a great benefit. It can effectively protect your baby’s eardrum and relieve the impact of strong sounds on your baby’s eardrum. Moreover, the right amount of earwax can also block foreign objects and flying insects from entering your baby’s ears. 3. Don’t force your baby to take medicine It’s hard to make your baby eat bitter and astringent medicine obediently. That’s why we often see parents pinching the baby’s nose with their hands and forcing the medicine on the baby while the baby is crying with his mouth wide open. The forced instillation of medicine will lead to choking into the eustachian tube, causing otitis media, and choking on milk is almost the same consequence. The newborn’s resistance and immunity is very weak, so it’s easy to contract diseases. Parents will give their children a variety of antibiotics in order to make them recover quickly. Some kinds of antibiotics, such as aminoglycoside antibiotics (gentamicin, kanamycin, streptomycin), are particularly damaging to the nerve cells in the ear and can lead to deafness with the slightest carelessness, called ototoxic drugs. 5. Avoid family noise Family noise, this may be a problem that parents are more likely to ignore. According to tests, the noise generated by TV sets in the home can reach 60 to 80 decibels, washing machines 42 to 70 decibels, and refrigerators 34 to 50 decibels. In addition, indoor banging and loud quarrels of family members are among the range. Hearing loss is gradual and not easily detected, while household noise has the characteristics of long-term and insidious, so the danger of hearing damage to babies from household noise cannot be ignored! It is recommended that the more noisy equipment at home should not be turned on at the same time, while avoiding making the baby in a noisy environment for a long time, and avoiding the common sources of noise pollution in life.