Holidays and hearing aids

We've taken a few trips with our three-year-old daughter, who uses bilateral hearing aids, and have learnt some useful travel tips along the way.

Packing

Pack a couple of storage pots, cleaning brushes, battery drawer opening tools, battery packs and any other hearing aid accessories you use. They can easily go missing, so having spares is a great hack for peace of mind. Split these between your hand luggage and hold luggage just in case one or the other goes missing – although, keep all batteries in your hand luggage as some battery types are not allowed in hold luggage.

Flying

Our daughter is generally happy to keep her aids in for flights, so we take her lead. But for some children, the background noise on a plane can be overwhelming and uncomfortable. We regularly ask if she wants to take them out so she knows she has the choice, especially when she seems more tired or irritable as it could be from listening fatigue.

I definitely advise requesting special assistance for your flight, even if just to make staff aware you may have additional needs. I've found it useful for having shorter queue times, for example, at passport control, which is when my daughter can struggle more because it's very noisy.

For long-haul flights with TV entertainment, think about what headphones will work best for your little one. I'd forgotten to bring any to plug in and asked if they have any large over-ear-headphones we could use. They kindly brought us a pair from business class, which worked perfectly for her, so it's always worth asking the flight attendants for help.

Beaches

We used to worry about what to do with Elina's hearing aids at the beach. Is it better to leave them in, risking them getting wet or falling in the sand, but letting her have full access to sounds? Or is it best to take them out from the start and let her have freedom to play and splash around without us hovering over her?

At the moment, we've found the second option works best for us. Elina understands that hearing aids come off around water and is happy to hand them over so I can put them safely away as soon as we're at the beach. I think she prefers not hearing me say, "You can't get your hearing aids wet," over and over, so this is our approach at the moment. Every child is different, so there's no right way to go about this. Do whatever works best for you!

Hot weather

My daughter has always been quite a warm baby and would often have condensation in her hearing aid tubes in the early days. We asked to switch to low-condensation tubes quite early on, and although they're a little thicker and less flexible, they've been so much better for her. I'd recommend looking into these or requesting to try them from your audiologist if you're battling with condensation daily. If you're traveling somewhere very hot, it could be useful to take some with you.

Make sure to keep hearing aids in a drying device overnight to make sure they fully dried out after a hot and sweaty day! We use a drying capsule in Elina's storage pot.

Above all, enjoy your holiday and the memories you're making with your little one!