In The Ear Update

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 4/27/2006 10:58:26 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,

tracey@... writes:

So, how

valid can the information that she shared with me be?

Well, the info sounds pretty realistic to me. Little ones grow quickly and

parents here are often bemoaning the fact that no sooner do the new mold arrive

then it is time for a new set. OUr molds -- which are to go with BTE aids

are $65 at the local hospital and $100 at the audiologist. (We go to the

hospital.)

So $300 for recasting and essentially re-casing the ITE doesn't sound

unreasonable to me. $30 a pop sounds ridiculously low and I would discount that

cost estimate right way, it's less than any regular BTE mold cost I've ever

heard mentioned. An ITE has to be more expensive since there's far more

involved

that there is with the BTE molds. They have to make the mold and then get the

aid itself into the mold.

There are several parents here who use ITEs -- so for them, what is the

costs for new molds and how often are they needed for little ones? For us mold

are ever 3-6 months, depending on Ian's growth spurts.

As for the standard choice for kids being BTEs ... that doesn't surprise me

at all. The one reason we would never consider an ITE is simply the need for

an FM system. As far as I know, there isn't one available yet that works with

an ITE.

Our son could not make it in the mainstream setting without his FM system.

Until the manufacturers come up with one that is reliable, ITEs are not an

option. To switch to an ITE means giving up one of the most useful tools Ian

has.

So, before making the ITE versus BTE call, consider what else your child

will be needing. A lot of us with school age kids will tout the wonders of

having the FM system. I can't praise it enough, it truly works towards leveling

the playing field for Ian in the classroom. Others with younger kids who use the

FMs at home and at pre-school, have raved about how useful it is in

supporting the child's language acquisition. The FM is a support tool that is

not

currently available for the ITE and for us, that alone rules out the ITE as a

choice.

I'd hate to see you spend a ton of money on the aids only to have to spend

it again so that other support tools are available for your child. Take a look

at the broader picture. And if the ITEs are good for your needs now, perhaps

by the time an FM is needed, you'll be buying the next set of aids anyway.

Every family's need are different!

Best -- Jill

[Guest guest]

We went to the audiologist yesterday. Another lesson in hearing

loss management for me. Turns out that we were given the same old

verbage, BTE is most recommended, ITE expense due to recasing

(quoted at $300 per ear, per incidence, altough someone else on the

team said $30), pain of hard cases. Soft cases not durable and lots

of equipment failure. I then said, well, couldn't we try them and

see if they work for us? Then I found out the truth. This company

doesn't dispense this product, this audiologist has never actually

seen this product and as her company makes all their decisions at a

national level, she can't even attempt to give it a try. So, how

valid can the information that she shared with me be?

Any of you that have children with the ITE aids either by general

hearing or Otikids have experience with these matters?

Also, found out that Childrens actually dispenses the Otikids, but

our audiologist never mentioned this option to me. I have sent her

an e-mail. I am looking for a generalhearing dispenser, and have

sent an e-mail.

Were you able to do a trial with the ITE aids, given the custom

build?

We are seeing a local audiologist in our county to try to get my

sons hearing aids adjusted properly. Our audiologist at Childrens

is an hour away and does not have much availability, so I decided to

try something else, as we need to minimize the amount of school that

is missed.

When we get new aids, we will go back to Childrens though, because

they are a non profit, our insurance ended up paying for all of our

aids and then they wrote the rest off. Amazing. And to purchase at

the for profit local place would end up costing us at least $2000.

It is well worth it if we have to pay out of pocket to have local

adjusting done, although we may get insurance to pay for part of

that. We will see.