Cat Bowen, Romper, looks at whether fireworks can hurt babies’ ears. Bowen, who is deaf, has a daughter who is hard of hearing, so she is particularly concerned about the impact of noisy fireworks, writing “that what little hearing we have, we want to protect at all costs.”
Bowen points to a Boys Town National Research Hospital report which states that “fireworks register at over 140 decibels of sound” and recommends safe distances for adults and children. Bowen writes that adults “need to be about 65 feet away from the fireworks to be considered safe,” but it’s more than double that for a child.
But what about babies? Bowen says that “it’s different with babies,” because there is no hearing protection gear made for infants under six months. So “[c]an fireworks hurt your baby’s ears?” “Absolutely,” says Bowen, who recommends that you limit your baby’s exposure, try using protective headphones, and “keep you and your baby as far from the fireworks as you can while still enjoying the view.”
Originally posted at Silencity.com.
