When he hears loud sounds he starts to get very upset and cry. He melts down and has to be removed from the situation if possible. This has been going on since a little before he turned two. So we have been dealing with it for over a year now. It has just become a part of our routine and daily life. It doesn't happen all the time but often enough that we have to stay prepared.
Anyway I asked his primary care doctor about it at his 2 year check up and she assured me it was that his hearing just hadn't been damaged by life yet. My words not hers but that's basically what she said. She said there were no flags on his autism screening so he should just grow out of it. I trust her so that was. It for me he's going to grow out of it. We talked about it again at his 3 year old check up. The episodes seemed to happening less often but they were still occurring. He seemed to be growing out of it. He was also starting to deal with it better. I mean it was so much better that when I enrolled him in preschool I forgot to write it on his paperwork. Talk about a mom FAIL! Seriously though he hadn't had an episode in months.
Guess what? The third day he was in school he had a complete freak out melt down in music class. I felt like the worst mom ever! I mean this is a major thing so how on earth did I forget to write it down. Ugh. He had a meltdown for the first 3 classes so almost every week for a month. The final meltdown was even with his big headphones on but I think that was more out of anticipation than anything especially since they said he calmed down more quickly than the last two times. Naturally I started to worry about his hearing again.
We had a big family birthday party back in the middle of September and we were talking about his ear because he became upset there. My cousin asked if I had considered that it was possibly a sensory thing. I'm not 100% sure but I'm pretty sure I became defensive. I didn't mean to but I think I did. The sad part is I don't even realize that I did until a few days later. Then I started taking into consideration what she said and talked about it with a friend. I decided that I would revisit the issue with his doctor the next time we were in for anything but that I wasn't going to make a special trip.
That brings us to last week and then today. Last week we went in because I though he was coming down the the crud I had. He wasn't but we did get to talk to the doctor about his hearing. It wasn't our normal doctor but we have seen him quite a few times and like him a lot too. He said to take him to the ENT and see what they thought before we did anything about a sensory issue. Well today we went to see the ENT. I'm proud to say that the reason he melts down and has episodes (as I call them) is because his hearing is better than perfect. Seriously in both ears. Life has not damaged his hearing at all. He also did great participating in the hearing tests they ran. He let them stick more things in his ears today than he ever has at a doctors appointment ever! The doctor told me to just keep doing what we are doing and that he will grow out of it. He said he doesn't see any signs that a sensory issue is anything to worry about at this point. He called Blake a normal little boy with really really good hearing. We also discussed how he would normally counsel people on ways to make life a little easier when sensitive hearing is involved but that we were already doing everything he would recommend. Yay!
I am glad that we had his hearing evaluated today. I was feeling like it was important and should be done but didn't want to get Blake all worked up about it. I feel so good knowing that he will most likely outgrow this but I am also willing to do anything we need to if this continues on past his fourth birthday.
Here are some pictures from our visit today. The staff and doctors at Easter Oklahoma Ears, Nose and Throat were so awesome. Dr. Moore was great with Blake and the girls that did the hearing test couldn't have been better with him either!
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