High-Risk Factors for Hearing Loss
- HOP: The Hearing Outreach Program
Congratulations, your baby passed their newborn hearing screening. If your baby has one or more of the following risk factors, follow-up screening and monitoring is recommended.
Risk Factors
- Family history of permanent hearing loss in childhood
- An infection present at birth
- Problems with their head, face, ears or neck
- Medications given at birth that may cause hearing loss
- Syndrome associated with hearing loss
- Admission to a neonatal intensive care unit
- Prematurity (< 37 weeks)
- Congenital Hypothyroidism
Other reasons to schedule a hearing test
- Parent/caregiver concern regarding hearing
- Delays in speech/language development
- Recurrent middle ear infections or one episode lasting < 3 months
- Head trauma associated with loss of consciousness or skull fracture
- Bacterial meningitis and other infections (mumps; encephalitis; viral labyrinthitis)
- Exposure to potentially damaging noise levels
- Medications that may cause hearing loss