It is estimated that 3 out of every 1,000 children are born with a permanent hearing loss. In the past, hearing loss wasn't detected until the children affected were toddlers and already had speech and communication delays. A new emphasis on early detection of hearing loss and other developmental delays means that you should know very early if your child is born with a hearing loss.

In fact, the recent increase in universal hearing screening of newborns means that your baby is likely to have a hearing test even before leaving the hospital. This early detection can lead to early intervention and help your child learn to communicate well.

As with any screening test, there will be some false positive test results. This means that some newborns who are tested will “fail” the test, but not actually have any hearing loss. Although this can be scary for parents, this result should not be thought of as failing the test. Rather, it simply means that your baby will need more testing in a few weeks. This is not uncommon, and most babies pass the second hearing test. It is important to have repeat testing done if your baby fails his first test, though.

It is also possible for a baby with a hearing loss to pass this test. Although much less common than false positive tests, these false negative results are more serious. This means that it is very important to talk to your pediatrician if you think that your baby doesn't hear you, even if he had already passed a hearing test when he was born.