Babies with low birth weight prone to hearing problems–Expert

The hearing problems if detected early can be corrected.
A Paediatrician with the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, Solomon Adeleke, said babies with low birth weight and over matured ones were prone to congenital hearing loss.
Mr. Adeleke told the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Tuesday that such hearing loss could be acquired from birth or through infection.
He said that congenital hearing problem might be difficult to detect by parents, adding that parents should be observant while communicating with the child to detect any difficulty.
“Most of the time the hearing loss is acquired, so we have acquired and sometimes not acquired.
“There are some children that are predisposed; low birth babies have problems of congenital hearing loss. This also occurs when a baby is over matured in the womb; the baby can be over matured during pregnancy,” he said.
Mr. Adeleke urged parents to seek medical advice on the health implication of the weight of their babies, adding that if the hearing problem was detected early it could be corrected. He said that doctors should examine a child’s ability to hear after delivery, especially the most at risk babies for early detection and proper management.
He said that it was the doctor’s responsibility to ascertain “the type of method of hearing to test in a patient with congenital hearing problems.’
He said that some congenital hearing loss could be corrected through surgery while some might not need surgery depending on the time of detection.
“It can be corrected; correction begins from what the child is able to hear that is transformed in the brain to perform the action. Some of them are due to some congenital abnormalities that are in the brain stem which does not allow the child to hear properly.
“Surgery will be used to remove such things that predisposed a child to hearing problem,” he said.
Mr. Adeleke cited examples whereby one might be confused about what the child understood; whether the child hears poorly or tries to translate what it heard into action.
He said that detecting congenital hearing loss could be by direct or indirect communication to the child’s ear in order to stimulate the brain stem.
He, therefore, advised that parents should endeavour to present their babies early for the detection of hearing problem, especially when the baby had low birth weight.
(NAN)*