I've had a few mums ask me about hearing protection for their babies when going to concerts or a basketball match, so thought i'd write this up. This blog is for the babies or children under 4 years of age in your life.
Firstly, THANK YOU to those parents who have reached out (you know who you are) and asked me this question. It honestly makes me happy to know that hearing health care is a priority and I am always happy to talk about hearing health care and safety, for any age. This is one of the main reasons I started Hearing Collective. To get the message out there that hearing protection should not be an after thought, rather a proactive measure and a life long behaviour. After all, noise induced hearing loss is 100% preventable.

Things to consider when choosing a headphone or hearing protection for your child:
- How long will your child spend using them?
- Are there any ear conditions or uses that need to be medically attended to prior to putting headphones on?
- Does the device you are pairing the headphones with have a volume limiting function?
- Have you considered a headphone with an active noise cancelling feature, if so why? Compared with ear muffs, which will usually have passive features built into it. Check out my previous blog on this here.
- Has the research been done to show the headphones meet the recommended safe listening levels and volume limiting functions? Remember, a lot of brands claim to be volume limiting headphones, but this does not take into account the frequency that is being limited or the duration a child uses them.
Here is a table of recommended headphones or hearing protection for kids. There are a lot of brands out there promoting headphones as hearing protectors or volume limiting features. Just make sure whichever brand you buy, can back up the claims they make.

Hears 2 Ears, Cheers Kat Penno
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