Why Are My Baby's Hearing Aids Whistling? (And Will It Ever Stop?)

If you just got home from your baby's first hearing aid fitting, you're in the right place!

What Is That Whistling Sound?

You just got baby's first hearing aids, at long last! Hooray! 

It's the start of an exciting new chapter.

It seems to come and go. And, it's driving you crazy. We totally understand!

That sound is called feedback. It happens when the hearing aid molds are too loose, or if something's rubbing against them. The hearing aids' microphones pick up sound that's already been amplified and amplify it again—the same loop that makes a microphone squeal when held too close to a speaker.

When babies are small, their ears are growing quickly. So, the time lag between getting the ear mold taken, and getting it dispensed results in molds that are too small.

Small molds = lots of feedback.

Speaking of earmolds, here are our tips for making the best of those earmold appointments with baby.

Is My Baby Bothered By It?

We were concerned that the sound would annoy our baby.

But, people in the know tell us that babies are probably not hearing the feedback at all.

So, they're probably blissfully unaware of it!

What Can You Do About It?

When the molds get too small, yes, we family members just have deal with it.

But, there are a few tricks that can help! Ask your audiologist what they recommend. Here's what helped us: 

• Rushing the Order - Our audiologist "rushed" the molds order to make them arrive sooner.
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• Take New Earmold Impressions Sooner - In the first year of our baby's hearing loss, we often asked our audiologist to take a new set of earmold impressions when she dispensed our baby's new earmolds. For hard of hearing infants, this can help ensure new molds are ready by the time your child starts outgrowing her old ones. It can also save you—and your baby—a visit to the audiologist and all of the scheduling and logistics around that.
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• Silicone - We briefly used Mack's silicone earplug putty in a way that our audiologist recommended. It helped fill the gap between the mold and her ear. We only used a small amount and only under our audiologist's explicit guidance—and even then we were always concerned about the choking risk. (Hearing aid bonnets helped limit that risk, but not entirely.) Please don't try this without a direct conversation with your audiologist first.

• Settings - Ask your audiologist whether your child's hearing aids have feedback management software that may help. Our audiologist used these settings in our daughter's Phonak hearing aids to reduce the whistling. We can't explain the mechanics, but it made an audible difference.

Those things were helpful temporarily.‍

Does It Get Better?

The great news is, as your baby grows, this becomes less and less of an issue.

After a few rounds of earmolds, the problem started to solve itself.

So hang in there!  It's definitely not forever.

Next Up: Read more about our nightly hearing aid maintenance routine and the hearing aid supply box we set up to make it a breeze.