#HelpingHarryHear | A World of New Sounds

It’s been almost 2 weeks since Harry’s Cochlear Implant’s were activated and we are starting to see the first signs of some real reactions from our little chap.  He has been turning a little to loud noises, laughing at some and his babble has become louder and constant!  There is no doubt about it that he is hearing himself more than anything else and spends ages chatting away to himself and shouting at us!

It’s so nice to see and hear because at first we weren’t really seeing any changes in him at all.  The Auditory Implant Centre assure us that Harry is doing so well and the implants are definitely stimulating his auditory nerve providing some hearing for him but they don’t want to shock or scare him so they are being “turned up” very gradually week by week.  We may not see any strong reactions for a couple of months, his brain needs to learn sound as if he was a newborn baby and eventually he will start to realise what he is hearing and where it is coming from.

As for keeping the actual head gear on, he has done amazingly!!  He very rarely touches them or yanks them off they just fall off a lot of the time as the magnet isn’t very strong.  A few people have asked why they can’t just use a stronger magnet in the headpiece and the reason is because it would rub on his delicate skin and become uncomfortable, eventually tearing his scalp so he wouldn’t be able to wear it.  As he grows and gets older his skin will get tougher and the magnet will be changed – we can’t wait for that as it’s a pain in the arse them falling off all the time!!

People tend to immediately stare at him when we have been out and about but this doesn’t bother me in the slightest.  In fact it makes me super proud and its lovely when strangers actually come over and ask what he has on his head rather than just shying away from it uneducated.  I am more than happy to explain what his magic ears are, how they work and how they are changing his little life already! 

Again, I just want to thank each and every one of you who have taken the time to check up on how Haribo is doing, and for your amazing comments on his first reactions video – I will pop it below in case you missed it!  I hope by now you have more of an understanding as to what a Cochlear Implant is and that you can help us to spread the word about them and deaf awareness as a whole