Shortly after Cadell was
born, our midwife Trudy Bergmann told us of a hearing test that has recently
become available for new born babies. Since young kiddies are prone to ear
infections and other nasties, we were naturally keen to find out if Cadell's
hearing was up to par from the beginning, so we asked to learn more. It turns
out that the test is completely non invasive, doesn't disturb the baby, and
is in fact best done while the child is asleep! On top of that, the hospital
was offering it to us for free. 'Why not?' we thought, so with Cadell 8 days
old, we took ourselves off to Canberra hospital for an hour or so to get the
test done.
|
|
The first step was to use a bit of gel to stick
three electrodes on to Cadell's head. Since he decided to have a feed at the
time, the whole process was a matter of profound indifference to him.
|
The test measures brain stem response
to quiet audio stimulus (about 35dB) across a range of frequencies. Progress
is plotted on the screen of a laptop computer.
|
|
|
The technician holds a tiny earphone to Cadell's
ear to feed the test sounds in.
|
The bit we were waiting for. He
passed with both ears working well, even though he fell asleep during the
test.
|
|
|
While at the hospital, we stopped in at the birth
centre for a chat with Trudy. Out came the scales for another weigh-in. What
do you know? He's up to 3790 grams, a 180 gram increase in 8 days. This boy
can eat!
|
He may not read it for
a while, but you can send Cadell
an email.
|
Back to
michaelcarden.net
|
|