I'm thinking he's deaf as a post

I think my oldest son may be seriously hearing impaired. I'm actually not kidding, if you can believe it.

See, he started off at 14 months old with tubes. He had recurring ear infections and they drained quite nicely with the tubes. Sometime after he turned two, the left tube fell out. He didn't seem to have problems with that ear, but when the right tube started to work its way out, he really started to have problems. He'd dig and dig at his ear at night, and often say his ears hurt. We'd have the doctor look at them but they were never infected.

Right after New Year's my youngest got his tubes and once again, they drain really nicely and it's helped him stay healthy this winter. When he was in for his checkup, the ENT also looked at Cooper's ears and said he needs to have his hearing checked to be sure the pain and itching he's feeling aren't affecting his hearing.

We tried to have his hearing tested that day, but the GIGANTIC, SWEET MOTHER OF GOD, COULD THEY HAVE HAD BIGGER HEADPHONES scared the crap out of him and he wouldn't wear them. He sat on my lap instead and they played beeps on the speakers. But I think me being in the room skewed the results and it wasn't a conclusive test.

It did, however, show that he has some hearing loss in at least one of his ears.

Lately I started to notice that he has selective hearing. Or at least, I thought he had selective hearing. Until today, when I said "in an hour" and he heard "with a flower." Since then, we've been giving him makeshift hearing tests all day and he's failed most of them.

Like, for instance, my husband (who he seems to have the hardest time hearing, must be the low tones or he just has good taste) hid his head behind his laptop and said "I have candy, look I have Skittles," and Cooper didn't flinch. Didn't hear a word. Deaf as a post.

I'll be calling the ENT to schedule a massive hearing test for my child first thing in the morning. I am completely freaked out.


By the way, this is the child I'm talking about. I don't know. Maybe I'm blowing this out of proportion?