How Early Can My Child Receive a Cochlear Implant?

Learn More About Early Hearing Access

Empower Your Child’s Future

We understand how big this decision is for your family. Choosing a cochlear implant sets the stage for your child’s future. That’s why you need a company that focuses on what matters most: the internal implant technology. Our technology is designed for closest to natural hearing, reliability, and future readiness, so your child can grow with confidence and thrive in school, friendships, and life.

Breaking Barriers for Infant Hearing Access

Early access to sound sets the stage for your child’s future. Discover how MED-EL’s latest FDA approval is opening doors for infants and families in this CNN report.

Did you know your child’s cochlea is fully formed at birth?

Choosing the cochlear implant that best fits your child’s inner ear can make a meaningful difference. Understanding your child’s cochlear size early allows for a personalized approach designed to support individualized care and early access to sound during the most formative months.

Individualized Care

Only MED‑EL offers a truly personalized approach to your child’s hearing, starting with advanced tools like OTOPLAN and Anatomy-Based Fitting (ABF). These allow your care team to look at your child’s unique cochlea, choose the best-fitting implant, and then customize the programming for the most natural hearing experience.

MED-EL offers the industry’s widest range of electrode lengths. With OTOPLAN, surgeons can choose the best fit for your child’s anatomy.
Just like every child needs the right shoe size, every cochlea needs the right implant fit. The better the fit, the closer to natural their hearing will be.
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MED-EL CI: Stimulates the Whole Cochlea
Gives access to the full range of sounds.

Other Brands: Only Stimulate the First Part
Can't stimulate low pitches at their natural location.

This is made possible by MED-EL’s industry-leading range of electrode lengths, allowing surgeons to find the perfect fit for your child’s cochlea.

Unlike other implants that stimulate only part of the cochlea, leaving sound incomplete and distorted, MED‑EL electrodes are designed for complete cochlear coverage. This means giving your child the most natural hearing experience possible. 

Meet Rachel: Growing Up With Cochlear Implants

"Early implantation has given me the ability to participate in any and all activities I have chosen to do at any point in my life. Being implanted at a young age, receiving auditory verbal therapy, and a copious amount of help and assistance from MED-EL and various other organizations has allowed me to have all the opportunities in my life that I have had in the past, today, and continue to receive in the future."

Rachel is a bilaterial implant recipient from North Carolina. She received her first implant when she was 10 months old, and her second implant when she was 2 ½ years old. Since then, her hearing has thrived! Rachel has enjoyed dancing her whole life and has credited her implants as a big reason she has been able to enjoy that part of her life. 

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Every Moment Matters for a Developing Brain

Every sound plays a role in your child’s development—helping shape speech, social skills, learning, and confidence. Only MED‑EL cochlear implants are FDA approved as early as 7 months giving your child the best start by unlocking access to sound during the sensitive period of brain development. 


What This FDA Approval Means for Your Child

Hear from other MED-EL Users

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Max C.

“Being able to communicate with people around me. If I didn’t have these cochlear implants, I wouldn’t be able talk to people around me and to do the things that I love to do, like playing sports.”


— Max C., now 23 (implanted as a baby)

 

Recipient Daisy in a bed post implant surgery

Daisy D.

“After I got Anatomy-Based Fitting, it actually sounded like I was hearing everything, like normal people. Everybody’s voices were way more round and had way more characteristics.”


— Daisy D., now 14 (implanted as a baby)
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Ben S.

“When I saw him respond the first time to my voice, to my husband’s voice, it was just like, this is a whole new world for us and for our baby. I would do it again 100 times. This has opened so many doors for our son and for our family.”


— Ben's Mom, Ben is now 6 (implanted as a baby)
Less than 12-month old baby with a cochlear implant and mother playing on the ground with toys.

Designed for their future

Our soft, flexible electrodes are engineered for hearing preservation and atraumatic insertion, protecting delicate structures of the cochlea for potential future technologies. Plus, your child can benefit from future technology without additional surgery because every MED-EL implant is future ready. 

 

Hit Milestones Faster

MED-EL's unique cochlear implant design lets people benefit from their implant quickly. This can support them in hitting those all-important speech and language milestones.

OTOPLAN is a planning tool that lets your child’s surgeon see the exact size and shape of their cochlea, so they can choose the electrode that fits best and provides complete cochlear coverage.

 

Hear Better in Class

Stimulating the whole cochlea makes it easier to understand speech. That’s especially handy in noisy places like classrooms.

Anatomy-Based Fitting ensures the implant is programmed based on your child’s unique cochlear anatomy for accurate electrode placement and stimulation.

 

Enjoy and Make Music

Music sounds more natural with a MED-EL cochlear implant, so your little one can master everything from nursery rhymes to piano concerts.

MED-EL’s FineHearing sound coding adds the delicate timing details that make music sound rich and natural. Only MED-EL is capable of providing this feature thanks to our full-length electrodes.

Take the first step 

Reach out to a MED-EL expert today. We have a team waiting to support you through your unique journey, from diagnosis to activation and beyond. Let us answer your questions so you can start your child's journey to better hearing.