When Drew was first diagnosed with hearing loss, I spent all of my time researching cochlear implants, talking to professionals, at doctors appointments, with one goal in mind: getting Drew implanted at as early of an age as I could. What I didn't think about was the post-activation time. Sure, I knew he would need multiple mappings, and that the implants would be slowly activated to the hearing we have established for him today and that we would spend a lot of time in therapy. But I didn't consider how difficult just keeping his cochlear implants on his head would be!
To celebrate Drew's activation, we had lunch with family at Champp's. By the end of the lunch, I was so frustrated with keeping the coils and processors on Drew's ears. It was so challenging with a little baby that was constantly wiggling and moving around. I would get one ear back on, just to have Drew move and knock the other ear off. I left that lunch feeling so defeated! I had worked so hard to get Drew implanted so early, but it wasn't going to work if I couldn't keep the implants on his head!
So, as I drove home that day, feeling so sad and defeated, with Drew safely sitting in his car seat without any hearing, I remembered reading about how other family's on CI Circle had successfully used Hanna Andersson pilot caps to keep the equipment on their child's head. Problem solved! We used those caps for about a year, until Drew was fully walking and had much more control of his head, causing the implants to be knocked off less often.
I'm always interested in how other families keep the equipment on their child's ears, as it truly is a huge struggle. Lily's Mom showed how Lily is wearing her CI's these days. Check out these headbands! They are so cute, and so effective at keeping CI's on little ears. For anyone with a little girl, I think this would be great!
1 comment:
...or for a little boy whose parents aren't afraid to defy convention. :)
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