Like adults, babies may be good candidates for certain types of hearing aids. Along with hearing aid devices, your baby may benefit from speech therapy and sign language learning as they grow.

Whether or not your baby’s hearing loss will be permanent depends almost entirely on the cause of the issue. For example, if your baby’s hearing loss is caused by fluid in the ears, it will most likely go away on its own. However, if your baby’s hearing loss is caused by a problem with the ear structure or auditory nerve, the issue may be permanent without surgery.

Unfortunately, there is no 100% accurate way for you to tell whether or not your baby is deaf at home. In general, for newborns, one potential sign of deafness is a lack of reaction to loud and startling sounds. However, again, this is not a reliable test for deafness, and your best option for getting answers is to take your baby to an ear, nose, and throat specialist (ENT).

Whether your baby’s hearing loss will go away on its own or require medical intervention will depend on the cause of the issue. While fluid in the ear will often go away with time, other types of ear issues, such as problems with the auditory nerve, will require medical treatment.