Photo credit: cottonbro studio
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
WISH-TV in Indianapolis, Indiana recently ran a story about hearing loss in children. As audiologist Brian Fligor notes, noise exposure from activities children and teens often engage in, including using personal listening devices, playing the drums, shooting guns or using fireworks can endanger their hearing. Noise exposure in everyday life, even without these activities, can be sufficient to cause hearing loss, tinnitus (ringing in the ears) and hyperacusis (a sensitivity to noise). Personal listening device use is particularly dangerous.
So far, there are only anecdotal reports of hearing loss and tinnitus in children and teens, covered in another report from Ohio TV station WKRC. Peer-reviewed medical literature hasn’t shown this yet. One of my mentors in medicine cautioned that the plural of anecdote isn’t data. There’s also the proverb that, “one robin doesn’t make it spring.” But when one starts seeing multiple similar reports of a health problem, I think that can be an early warning sign that things are changing.
Because of its insidious onset, noise-induced hearing loss can take 40 years to get bad enough to be noticeable. When audiologists and ENT physicians in multiple cities are commenting that they are seeing younger patients with hearing loss and tinnitus, I think that’s something to be concerned about. Only a few years ago, noise exposure didn’t begin until someone finished school and joined the military or went to work in a factory. Now, toddlers begin watching videos on their devices as early as age 3, using headphones so the sound doesn’t bother others. They attend noisy birthday parties at children’s gyms or at restaurants. I have attended some of these events with my own grandchildren.
Parents and grandparents should be aware that excessive noise can cause auditory damage. Those hosting the events can tell the venue to keep the noise down. Those attending with their little darlings can offer hearing protection. Early hearing loss can affect academic performance. If a child can’t hear in the classroom, she or he can’t learn as much as someone without hearing loss. The American Association of Pediatrics recently published a policy statement about noise and children.
Preventing hearing loss is easy and inexpensive. Avoid loud noise, turn down the volume, use hearing protection or leave the noisy environment. If parents and grandparents do that for the little ones, children’s ears should last a lifetime.
