Screening Newborns

All but seven US states now require newborns to be screened for hearing loss before leaving the hospital. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says all children should be screened for hearing loss before one month of age. The procedure takes less than 10 minutes. Hearing loss is the most common birth defect in the US, occurring in three out of every 1,000 newborns, according to the CDC. Two of those children will have a partial hearing loss while one will be profoundly deaf. That means roughly 12,000 babies are born each year with permanent hearing loss.

But many babies that fail hearing tests do not get the follow-up they need. About a third of the 76,000 newborns that did not pass their screening test last year did not get the further testing needed to determine if they actually have hearing loss, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, The CDC blames a shortage of audiologists and a lack of understanding on the part of parents. If a child doesn’t get a follow-up and diagnosis by 3 or 4 months, the problem isn’t likely to be caught until age 2 or 3 when it has started affecting language and social skills.