We live surrounded by them, often more than we would like, and there is much evidence that a high level of noise negatively affects health. Children are more vulnerable than adults to suffer the effects of noise.
Prolonged exposure to loud noise can cause brain, cardiovascular, hearing disorders, affect the level of stress ... The younger children are more careful to take when they are exposed to high decibel levels.
When they are small, loud noises modify children's brains and can affect speech interpretation, as it causes increasing difficulty in distinguishing speech sounds.
It is known that children living in noisy homes tend to have lower cognitive and linguistic development. They may also suffer attention and memory deficits, their motivation decreases and negative effects on their self-esteem may appear. They also suffer more anxiety than other children.
Even before birth, when the fetus can already hear, an adequate environment must be sought. Hearing in people begins in the gestational period and if the pregnant woman is exposed to chronic noise, the health of the fetus may be affected, with hearing loss and even delayed birth.
The International Day of Otological Care was recently celebrated and WHO warns that 11 billion young people around the world could be at risk of hearing loss due to harmful hearing practices.
And although going to discos or using headphones to listen to their favorite music we still see it very far for our children, there are other factors that affect them.
According to WHO, half of the cases of hearing loss could be avoided by primary prevention. Between the Tips to minimize the risks of hearing loss, remember not to expose children to loud and / or prolonged noises, limit the daily time of use of the audio devices and to an adequate volume, make periodic auditory checks ...
It is also important to vaccinate children against childhood diseases, particularly measles, meningitis, rubella and mumps.
Recall that hearing loss can be inherited or caused by maternal rubella or birth complications, and also by some infectious diseases such as meningitis and chronic ear infections, as well as by the use of ototoxic drugs, noise exposure Excessive and aging.
As we can see, some of these factors can be controlled to a large extent. Children are one of the most vulnerable groups to the harmful effects of noise and we must also pay attention to this important aspect of your health.
