Newborn hearing screening is now available in many cities in China, moving from post-birth intervention to pre-birth prevention, where prenatal genetic diagnosis or pre-conception genetic testing and counseling can reveal whether a fetus will develop congenital deafness. For mothers and fathers, this move will undoubtedly provide an umbrella of protection for their baby’s hearing health earlier. However, it is important to note that the hearing screening does not mean that the baby will not have hearing problems in the future. Protecting your baby’s ears is still a task that mom and dad cannot ignore. Causes of hearing loss in babies: Compared to adults, babies’ ears are not fully developed and the ear canal structure has its own characteristics, such as a ventilation tube connecting the middle ear to the nasopharynx, which is medically called the eustachian tube. The eustachian tube of small children is short, flat and wide compared to that of adults. Therefore, if there is an inflammation in the nasal cavity or nasopharynx, it is very easy for children to invade the middle ear through the eustachian tube and cause otitis media. Parents who do not take proper care of their baby’s ears can also suffer from different ear diseases, which can cause ear pain and discomfort in mild cases, or can lead to perforation of the eardrum, continuous pus flow and hearing damage in severe cases. The causes of hearing loss in babies are divided into two categories: one is congenital, the mother was infected with a virus during pregnancy or other environmental factors, such as prolonged exposure of the pregnant mother to noise, which is likely to cause hearing impairment in babies because the fetal auditory system is very sensitive during development. The second is acquired, the most common and most harmful is the aminoglycoside antibiotics cause hearing damage, these drugs include gentamicin, streptomycin, tobramycin, kanamycin, etc., some babies are very sensitive to this type of drugs, the use of drugs need to be very careful. In addition, some ear diseases are not detected by the mother and father in time to go to the hospital, resulting in partial hearing loss of the baby. The correct treatment of common ear diseases in babies: Many babies’ hearing is impaired due to incorrect ear “care” triggering ear diseases, so in order to have a bright-eyed baby, mom and dad also need to understand how to properly treat their baby’s ears once they accidentally get sick. Otitis externa: Treatment: Moms and dads should try not to use their own medicine. Some parents use boric acid lotion to disinfect their baby’s broken outer ear canal, which is a dangerous practice because the tympanic membrane of a small child is very fragile and if used improperly, boric acid lotion can lead to perforation of the tympanic membrane. If you must use topical medication to relieve your baby’s pain, you can choose water-soluble ear drops. Prevention: Most otitis externa is caused by sewage from washing baby’s hair, swimming or milk accidentally flowing into the outer ear canal after baby spits up, and then improper care by mom or dad, causing bacteria to take advantage of the opportunity to invade. So once you can sterilize the cotton swab dipped in a little saline and gently wipe it. In addition, do not use hairpins or ear picks to pull out your baby’s ears to avoid accidentally cutting the skin of the outer ear canal and causing infection. Cerumen embolism: Cerumen is commonly known as earwax. When mom or dad takes baby swimming or gives him a shampoo or bath, water is poured into the ear, which may soften and swell the earwax accumulated in the ear and block the ear canal. In this case, the baby’s ears will be stuffy and the hearing will be poor. If this happens, it is best to go to the hospital for a checkup, and the doctor will use an instrument to remove the softened earwax. Parents should not take out the earwax for their baby. The ear canal of a baby is very narrow, so if parents are not careful, they may cut the outer ear canal or damage the tympanic membrane in the ear. Also, if the ear digging tool is not properly sterilized, bacteria can easily enter the ear and cause inflammation. Treatment: It is not necessary to “treat” your baby on your own. You can ask your doctor to clean the ear canal regularly to avoid blocking the ear canal and affecting your hearing. Prevention: When bathing and washing baby’s hair, try to keep baby’s head on top so that the water does not pour into the ear. If water enters baby’s ear canal, there is no need to use tools to deal with it. Suppurative otitis media: Treatment: Generally, in acute otitis media, the bacteria are more destructive and the pus is more abundant. After the tympanic membrane is compressed and perforated by ischemic necrosis, the pus flows down the perforation of the tympanic membrane to the external ear canal, and then flows out from the external ear canal. Prevention: Since the eustachian tube of infants and young children has the anatomical characteristics of being short, flat and wide, mothers should pay attention to the nursing posture when breastfeeding. Once the baby is nursed in an improper position, such as lying down to suckle, milk will flow down the middle ear from the eustachian tube, and milk is a good place for bacterial culture, which can easily lead to otitis media. Therefore, try to lift your baby’s head higher when feeding him, and don’t let him lie down while breastfeeding. After feeding, pick up your baby and pat him on the back. Don’t lie down immediately so that the milk doesn’t choke and enter the middle ear through the eustachian tube, which can lead to otitis media. Secretory otitis media: Nowadays is the period of high incidence of cold, and if the cold is not treated in time, the baby’s ear will also become a place of calamity, there is an adenoid in the baby’s nasopharynx, after the cold the adenoid will increase and swell up, causing the eustachian tube to be blocked, the middle ear will not be able to enter the air, and the low air pressure in the middle ear will cause secretory otitis media. If your baby has a cold for a few days, and you find that you can’t hear others, you may have secretory otitis media, which is one of the main causes of deafness in babies, and the incidence is on the rise. Treatment: If secretory otitis media is not treated in time, it can lead to hearing loss in pediatric patients, and in serious cases, it can also affect Prevention: Secretory otitis media is not obvious due to the symptoms, most babies do not feel anything, and mothers and fathers may delay treatment if they do not pay attention to observation, which eventually leads to hearing damage in babies, so parents should care to see his reaction to sound when talking to their babies in general, and if the baby is slow to respond and If your baby is slow to respond, inattentive, and seems to be unable to hear you clearly, and if your baby has a history of colds, you should go to the ENT department at the hospital for a checkup. How to protect your child’s ears? If you want to clean your baby’s ears, you can use a clean sterile cotton swab with some saline to gently clean the outer ear canal, but don’t go in too deep to prevent injury to the baby’s ear drum, which can cause hearing damage. 2. Prevent upper respiratory tract infections Actively preventing a cold or shortening the cold cycle as much as possible is the best measure to avoid otitis media in babies. If your baby has sinusitis or nasal congestion caused by a cold, sleep with your head padded high so that the mucus accumulated in the nasal cavity does not flow into the eustachian tube, or use some nasal drops to help ventilation and sinus drainage to promote the dissipation of inflammation to avoid otitis media. Mom and dad should usually pay attention to the state of their baby, once the baby has ear pain, fever, crying, has nasal sinus disease, runny nose, nose is not ventilated, to promptly seek medical attention, in the medication should also be careful not to use drugs that are toxic to the ears. 3. Prevent foreign objects from flying in If a small insect flies or crawls into your baby’s ear, the small insects moving around in your baby’s ear will baby ear pain and at the same time he will feel horrible, then mom and dad just need to use a little bit of cooking oil to suffocate the small insects without oxygen and then go to the hospital to deal with it, don’t use tweezers or pliers to clip it so as not to accidentally damage your baby’s ear.