This is the moment an adorable baby boy heard his mother’s voice for the first time.
Camdyn Holger was born with bilateral moderate to severe hearing loss in August 2017, meaning he could hear anything below screaming level.
But in November, after months of doctors appointments and treatments, he was able to respond to sound for the first time with the help of a hearing device.
Camdyn’s facial expressions transitioned from confused to excited when he heard his 20-year-old mother Vanessa say ‘hey!’ in a video of the touching moment, released today.
Speaking to Daily Mail Online, Vanessa described those few seconds as ‘pretty special and awesome.’
Holger said her ‘everything went as planned’ during the delivery and Camdyn was born a healthy baby.
But she became concerned when he failed the newborn hearing screening twice.
Holger, a mother-of-two with no family history of hearing loss, was told not to worry because very few of the 10 percent of infants who fail this test have permanent hearing loss.
The reasons for it range from fluid in the ear to head movement to crying through their exam.
But Holger, who has a rare form of diabetes called Maturing Onset Diabetes of the Young (MODY), believed her condition and her insulin levels during the pregnancy may have had something to do with Camdyn’s hearing loss, since low or high insulin levels are known to cause birth defects.
‘My insulin levels were increased during pregnancy,’ Holger told Daily Mail Online. ‘I had to give myself shots of insulin in the morning, at night and before I ate any meals.’
Holger then scheduled an appointment with an audiologist in Oregon where they diagnosed Camdyn with bilateral moderate to severe sensorineual hearing loss, a disorder that can affect language development.
In November, Camdyn received his new hearing aid.
‘We were thrilled to share his video show his smiles and reactions,’ Holger told Newsflare. ‘We watched many similar videos of baby’s getting hearing aids which helped us a lot to look forward to that day and we want to get our video out there to help other families going through the same thing.’
Holger said Camdyn wasn’t completely deaf – he could vaguely hear when people when they screamed or raised their voice – but the hearing aid allows Camdyn to hear people when they are speaking to him a normal volume level.
Although Holger’s condition didn’t have an adverse affect on her first pregnancy, she believes it may have been a factor in Camdyn’s hearing loss.
MODY – which accounts for just two percent of all diabetes cases in the US – limits pancreas’ ability to produce insulin, according to National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases MODY limit the ability of the pancreas to produce insulin, a hormone that plays a key role in the regulation of blood sugar levels.
Camdyn, who was born with moderate to severe hearing loss, was able to hear his mother’s voice for the first time things to a hearing device
Holger routinely injected two types of insulin as part of her treatment – Levimir and Humalog – but insulin requirements vary during pregnancy, according to the National Diabetes Services Scheme.
Usually, a woman’s insulin requirement levels may decrease until the end of their first trimester. These requirements usually start to rise during mid-to-late pregnancy.
In some cases, women are asked to adjust their insulin levels.
Poor management of diabetes during pregnancy could increase the risk of birth defect and other problems for the baby, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, two to three percent of children in the US are born with a detectable level of hearing loss in both ears.
The CDC says that the cause is unknown for 25 percent of them.
But about 75 percent of children with Maternally Inherited Diabetes and Deafness (MIDD) experience sensorineural hearing loss.
Holger is awaiting results from genetics tests performed on Camdyn to see if he has the condition.