Best Friend's Daughter Has Tinnitus at 5

Just got back from a visiting a close friend. They learned their daughter (5 years old) has around 40 dB of hearing loss and has trouble hearing around the “swooshing”. I asked if she was bothered by it... and her mom who is a Sensory and Perception PhD (mainly visual but some auditory) said “don’t you dare tell her about tinnitus”.

This makes me think. If you had never known any different would you care? Her tinnitus is loud enough that you have to shout for her to hear over it. Yet I watched her lay down and go to sleep with no masking or otherwise.

Anyways I feel terrible for her. Having tinnitus at a young age is truly torment.

 

I think life would be easier not ever knowing what you were missing but still hard. T can still increase with damage. Additionally you can grow to be jealous of others for having that opportunity of silence or you feel insignificant and less of a person for never getting the same chances other kids got.

 

If her baseline doesn't change, I don't think it will ever bother her because it is all she has known. If her perception of it did change (increased in volume), I am sure she would notice and it cause her distress.

Having also never heard silence in my life, I can agree that tinnitus at a young age is particularly hard.

 

I know it's hard to compare, but I've got visual snow since I remember all day and night and it doesn't bother me longer than few days when I've started to think about it.
I think when you don't know life without it, it's just normal for you. For me it was really weird when I realized seeing flashes and snow isn't normal and other people can see just the pure dark.

 

If you have to shout at her so she can hear, she’s not only got tinnitus, she’s almost completely deaf as well. She must have a hard time at school. Does she wear hearing aids ?

 

They are figuring that out. She’s missing lots of stuff in school. The loss is conductive. I’m not sure what what means in terms of development. But possibly something with the ossicles.

 

I don’t think anyone sees pure dark. I have always seen little specs of lights that move like a kaleidoscope my whole life.

 

I agree. I think most, if not all people, see noise (in their vision) in low light conditions.

 

I'd be surprised if it was otosclerosis (very young for that!), but there are other ossicle problems that can arise at a young age. It can be "good news", though, as we do have some technology to repair ossicle chains. Not so much for hair cells yet, unfortunately.

 

How long has she had hearing loss?

This is not something I’ve really shared here, but last year my daughter was diagnosed with conductive hearing loss. It was at least a 40dB loss in both ears. No fluid in her ears but her audiologist and allergist felt her Eustachian tubes were contributing. She took an allergy pill and used a nasal spray. After about three months, her hearing returned.

She had tinnitus when she could not hear well and she occasionally experiences it even now. Her ears pop often, too. I always tell her it’s okay. There’s absolutely no reason to frighten her. Because of me, she is already cautious to avoid loud sounds. She will grow up knowing to protect her ears.

Her pediatric audiologist has always had tinnitus. She said she never realized it was unusual.

 

Maybe ask her again in 10 years, away from her parents

 

There was a time when I was around 5 years old laying down at night in the dark and I focused on the "snow". I thought wow, that's weird that this is what darkness looks like. During the day or in bright light I never noticed it. Almost all the time I never thought about it and "tuned it out" because I was thinking about all kinds of other things. This year after withdrawing from medications and reading stuff on visual snow I started "noticing" it at times when there was low levels of light. Fortunately, I remembered about that night long ago and I knew it was a mind trick. I did not freak out, let the thoughts and emotions pass, and tuned it out again fairly quickly.

 

That's one tough little girl. I hope they accommodate her needs and help her live a productive life. Having intrusive tinnitus and profound hearing loss is no joke. Hopefully She's going to be eventually educated, on what she may face in her life. She will need lots of love, support and guiding in her life. I still believe that this little angel will have a bright future

I hate seeing children suffer, I wish the best for her!

 

Have they tried fitting with her hearing aids? If so, how did it go? I wonder if hearing aids would help "lessen" the tinnitus.

 

When i read that children have to face this condition it makes me feel terrible, i feel so sorry for her=(. I hope that within a few years we have at least something to keep tinnitus under control....

 

This is truly the most horrific part of these ear disorders: that they get worse and never stabilize. I will swim in pills if there was something like 99% guarantee this pill will protect against further acoustic trauma.

 

I often say: why me? Why did God punish me so harshly?

But 5 years old! Didn’t even start living and she’s given this heavy burden to carry.

So unfair, so unfair God!!!!

 

I think i don't agree completely there with you. Mostly they get worse if someone has a repeated acoustic trauma (concert, clubs ecc. without earplugs). Thats something someone with tinnitus maybe should avoid.
But i don't think that "tinnitus gets worse and never stabilizes" is something that we can state as a fact. Mostly there is a reason why it gets worse. We see that also many people here in the forum even after years tinnitus starts to fade or gets stable. And like always you have to remember that people whose tinnitus fades or remains stable rarely come back to the forum or stick around. Just my opinion though.

My hope is that within a few years Bi-modal stimluation will keep tinnitus under control until there is a definitve cure.

Sorry for the off topic btw.

 

Years ago I was seeing tinnitus councillor who was also a lecturer at university.
So one morning before he started he told students to be patient with him as ringing in his ears is very bad and he’s got trouble hearing.

After the lecture he said a young man approached him questioning the ringing ears. And councillor said: yes, I have tinnitus.
Young man said that he’s had this noise in his head for as long as he can remember and he had no clue there was a name for it.
He said he assumed that everyone has it.

My councillor didn’t want to go into too many details because he was hit very hard by tinnitus, he was even hospitalised at one point and after he “habituated” a complex dental work 5 years ago caused his tinnitus to go to a catastrophic level. So he was once again in survival mode and didn’t want to scare the young man.

So there is a chance that for those people tinnitus TRULY becomes “part of them” and I would like to think it’s probably not severe.

It’s like being born blind and loosing the sight later in life! Can’t compare the two.

I just wonder if it goes up and if they react to the increase. I’m sure if it would to reach severe level nobody could just be ok with it regardless for how long you’ve had it.

 

Tinnitus is fucking cruel. Best she grows up believing everyone hears it.

 

I think there are cases of people who are born with tinnitus who are basically 100% adapted/habituated because they've always known it and therefore don't care, at least not until they have a major spike of some kind.