Wednesday 18 July 2012

Have you heard....Preventing hearing loss *by John O'Connor*

This weeks post is by John O'Connor, please checkout his blog at:

bloggingwjohno.blogspot.com


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Learn to Protect Your Family’s Ability to Hear

Taking care of your hearing now will pay off tenfold later.  Many people see the doctor on a regular basis for blood sugar check-ups, heart check-ups, and normal growth and development wellness check-ups.  But many people often forget to take care of their hearing until it is too late.  Simple solutions are available to take assertive action to protect your hearing that can benefit you now and in the future.  Teaching your children about hearing and how to maintain great hearing ability is also important so children can grow up aware and educated to protect their ears and their hearing ability.

Family Meetings Are the First Step

It is often the case that children will follow the habits they view their parents doing.  If a parent constantly has a cell phone or Bluetooth to his or her ear, the child will think this is cool, normal, and appropriate.  If parents are constantly turning up the television or radio to drown out the sounds of voices in the household, children will soon be doing the same thing.  The steady and consistent rise of noise can play a major part in how well a person is able to hear.  Constant exposure to loud noises within a household can have a damaging effect on the hearing of both children and adults in the household.

Holding a family meeting and informing your children that you are going to take active measures to reduce the consistent noise level will be a great way to introduce your children to education about protecting their hearing.  Explain to your children how being around constant loud noises can lead them to end up wearing a hearing aid in order to hear fully.  If you have allowed loud noises for years in your household, it is never too late to reverse the cycle of this habit and begin a new and healthier cycle.  The benefits can potentially be enormous for your entire family.

Be Aware of Outside Noises

Outside noises such as loud lawnmowers, weed eaters, tractors, and machinery can also have a negative effect on how a person hears.  When children get to an appropriate age, they often are asked to help their parents by mowing or using basic electric tools.  Teaching your children to wear earplugs or safety headphones to mute the loud noises of machinery will help to protect their ears.  Many times, parents try hard to teach their children great safety habits and then neglect to apply the same practices to their own self.

It is important for parents to put into practice as many safety habits as possible when using mowers, trimmers, tillers, or other electrical machinery or equipment.  The National Institutes of Health is a government website that has a great collection of articles dedicated to educating people on how to protect their hearing when around loud noises.  Following these simple tips and encouraging your family to participate in these habits will give your entire family great results.

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