Re: does size of a BTE matter?

[Guest guest]

<<That said, we want him to be able to use the Microlink at school.

Our audie says that in order to get him the larger-gain aids, we

have to go with the larger " body. " We're concerned that this will be

uncomfortable for TC (when they weigh so much, they tend to flip

forward, from what I've seen when we've borrowed some other HA's to

try out).>>

We went from Phonaks to slightly larger ReSound Cantas this year for

Teddy, who's also 5 1/2 (but big for his age). Honestly, the size of the

aids didn't make that much of a difference for us at all. Of course,

when you put the big MicroLink receivers on the bottoms of them...it

almost doubles the weight, and increases the length by at least 50%! :-)

But we haven't had trouble at all with the aids flopping around or

anything. They're really not significantly heavier, either. The Cantas

are really good hearing aids (the sound quality is just amazing), they

work with the MicroLink, and there's enough power in the 780-D model for

Teddy's 85-105 dB hearing loss in his worse ear.

[Guest guest]

> <<That said, we want him to be able to use the Microlink at school.

> Our audie says that in order to get him the larger-gain aids, we

> have to go with the larger " body. " We're concerned that this will be

> uncomfortable for TC (when they weigh so much, they tend to flip

> forward, from what I've seen when we've borrowed some other HA's to

> try out).>>

>

> We went from Phonaks to slightly larger ReSound Cantas this year for

> Teddy, who's also 5 1/2 (but big for his age). Honestly, the size of the

> aids didn't make that much of a difference for us at all. Of course,

> when you put the big MicroLink receivers on the bottoms of them...it

> almost doubles the weight, and increases the length by at least 50%! :-)

My son wears 2 Phonak Novo Forte E4s, with the Microlink LX attached to the

bottom they are pretty heavy and he is still 2, almost 3 years old. He

received the FM about 8 months ago. He is a very active little guy and when

we first got them they flopped around a lot, and even fell out -- due to the

weight. So our audie suggested huggies. These are a thin piece of rubber

that wraps around the ear and has one or two pieces of rubber that attach

the hearing aid to the piece that wraps around the ear. These work

wonderfully. They keep the hearing aids in place perfectly and they hardly

ever fall off. They come in all different sizes so they fit children to

adults.

Talk to your audie if you're interested they really do work.

Good luck.

[Guest guest]

> But we haven't had trouble at all with the aids flopping around or

> anything.

When JD was 2 1/2, he also had to change from the smaller hearing aid to a

larger one. I can recall that being quite difficult for me to accept, but

the bottom line for us was, if they give him improved access to the world of

sound, then size didn't matter. Each time we 'upgraded and replaced' his

hearing aids, they seemed to get larger and larger one. This time, however,

the hearing aid actually was a smaller one (programmable vs. analog).

Children tend to quickly learn what they can and can't do with regard to

keeping hearing aids in place. The only time we had problems with JD's

flopping around are when he wanted them to. He thought it was funny (as did

his classmates) to shake his head back and forth to make them seem to stand

out from his head. He quit doing that when he got the CI though - I guess he

didn't want to risk it flying off. ;-)

Hugs,

Kay