My daughter has been hearing impaired since she was three years old and as she has only lost some tones they couldn't give her a hearing aid, until now, as the heaing loss was so severe that they would distort the sounds she could hear so it would be a catch 22 situation. Anyway she is collecting one today having fought the idea for years.

What sort of problems might she get, if any?

Do any of you have a digital haring aid, if so are they any good?

I have just spoken to my daughter and she says that paper is noisy! She won't be able to test it properly until she is in a working situation, the reason for getting it was that she has trouble hearing mumbling men at meetings.

She has been told to try to wear it for a number of hours each day to get used to it. At least it is free, the NHS is certainly a good thing when it works, and for our family it certainly has worked magnificently on a number of occasions.

I used to have a hearing aid (for 8 years) because one of my ears is only doing half of what it should. I remember that I had a headache the first week I started using the hearing aid, so many sounds!

The sounds never stopped bothering me were cutlery on plates (especially when eating in a restaurant), newspapers being turned over and people whistling. Argh.

My hearing aid has been living in a drawer for the last 5 or so years now. For me it simply wasn't worth the trouble of cleaning it, getting new batteries, and putting up with the above mentioned sounds.

One thing that really bothered me about getting a hearing aid, was the woman who fitted it. She kept telling me to grow my hair so that I could cover the hearing aid up. I was totally okay with it being visible (glasses are visible too, so why hide a hearing aid?), and then she tries to make me feel ashamed? Sheesh!