Hearing Aid Safety

Hearing aids play an important role in your child's development. We aim for your child to wear their aids through all waking hours. However, it is important to remember that hearing aids contain several small parts that do pose a potential choking hazard for young children. While the likelihood of a serious injury from hearing aids is low, there are several things you should do to minimise the risk.

The hearing aid is not a toy

When your child is not wearing their hearing aids, please ensure that they are kept in their box and out of reach of children. If your child removes the hearing aid, replace it on the ear immediately, or keep it out of reach until you plan to put it back on again. Do not allow small children to play with hearing aids.

Your audiologist will provide you with advice and equipment to help make the aids as safe as possible.

Battery door lock

Hearing aid batteries are small. They are a choking hazard and are also easily swallowed. It is important to use the battery door lock to prevent your child from accidentally removing the battery from the aid. Please refer to our handout on battery safety for further information.

Hearing aid ear hook

Hooks can be a choking hazard. Check that the hook is firmly attached to the hearing aid. If it is loose, screw it back onto the aid so that it sits tightly. If the hook is still loose after you've tried to tighten it, take the aid to your hearing centre so that the hook can be replaced.

Earmould

Ear moulds can be a choking hazard. Ensure the ear mould tubing is pushed tightly onto the hearing aid ear hook at all times. If the ear mould tubing has split or hardened, the mould may not stay firmly attached to the hearing aid. Your hearing centre technician can replace the tubing in the mould if required.

Hearing aid retention

We can provide you with the following products to help with hearing aid retention. We recommend that you use these products to minimise the risk of choking.

Double-sided sticky tape is available to help hold your child's hearing aids in place. This can also make it more difficult for babies to remove the aid.

Huggie aids help to hold the hearing aid onto the ear. The flexible plastic tube is placed around the pinna, and the hearing aid is slipped through the keepers to hold it in place.
www.halhen.com

Huggie Aids

Oliver clips. The hearing aid slips through the plastic loop while the clip is attached to the child's clothing. We recommend attaching the clip to the back of the child's collar and shortening the cords so that the aids cannot be placed in the mouth if your child pulls them off the ear.

www.phonak.com

Some parents have also found the following devices helpful:

Aviator caps, made out of lightweight material, have been successful for some parents. If planning to use a cap to hold your baby's hearing aids in place, ask your audiologist to check that the hat does not make a major difference to the signal picked up by the hearing aid.
www.hannaanderson.com

Ear Gear products contain a moisture resistant hearing aid cover and retention cord. They are available from Phoenix Hearing Instruments.
www.phoenixhearing.com.au
www.gearforears.com