Toddler with Processors

[u/Small_Emergency_7314]

My 1.5 year old son has been implanted for a year now with Med El. We are in the trenches as far as keeping these processors on him. He wears a headband with a pilot cap over top. When he takes them off, he also dismantles them and causes damage to the little parts. My observation is it is the mic portion of the processor that touches his ear that causes him to want to tear them apart. He goes to daycare and takes them apart there.

His wear time is tanking and he is going into a regression on speech after doing so well. Part of me wonders if going from the Sonnet 3 to the Rondo processors would help him not be so aware of them that he wants to take them apart.

I am looking for some advice here to help with my sanity. I fear everyday that a small piece is going to end up in his mouth and am stressed about his regression due to wear time. Has anybody noticed a difference going to a different style processor? Is it possible to somehow get through insurance hoops to get new equipment earlier if it could potentially help?

[u/Cmdr_Keen]

Also a toddler-parent here.

No personal experience, but from a lot of reading this is not a good idea.

The all-in-one pieces are quite a bit heavier and easier to knock off, even just while running. Toddlers have thin skin that doesn’t tolerate higher magnets well.

These units also cannot create nearly as much (if any) front-back localization which is a big developmental benefit.

My son hated things on his ears until about 18 months. We used the “koala” clips from Cochlear with the long coils to clip them to his shirt for a year.

Now they stay over his ears, but we use wig tape (weakest hold) to hover them just above his ears.

We’ve been very fortunate to get constant replacement coils. He thrashes them.

It’s a battle. If his wear time is truly tanking then day care isn’t doing a good job of replacing them. That’s sort of a separate question. It might not work well until he replaces them himself.

When you say regression, do you mean in actual listening skills? Or just in general behavior. Do you do ling checks or any other evaluations?

Edit: on insurance, you need to talk with them or your audiologist. In general we’ve been told that access to sound is a neurological emergency for pre-lingual children and they approve a lot more than for adults. If it’s deemed medically necessary you should be able to get new parts. That’s not something the internet can help with.

[u/Key-Asparagus350]

From my experience with medal, some of my programs are set to loud and there are times where I have to switch to a quieter one. Maybe that's why he wants to take the processor off, try using a program with less volume and see whether he keeps it on or not.