My DH has worn hearing aids for past four or so years - people never even notice them. My mum can only hear in one ear (since birth) due to a nerve growing in one place and a hearing aid would do nothing - you have to stand on right side of her and she does lip read a little but copes pretty well. DH's mum hearing is bad, I was always told was a diving accident but I suspect there is more to it due to DH's hearing loss and the fact hers seems really bad (far worse than my mums).

Anyway what I wanted to say really was is interesting about you saying how responsive to sound your DS is, as due to above history both mine have to have additional hearing tests - when DS had his a month or so ago - they said seemed to be some loss but could be due to middle ear infection clearing up - and I was really quite surprised he showed any at all because he seemed to respond to sound so well (we are having follow up for him and DD in a couple of months). I always thought it would be easy to notice any hearing loss especially in young children (DH took us ages to realize because he had become so adept at lip reading and filling in the blanks he wasn't hearing that he didn't know he wasn't hearing them) but have seen it appears is not - so I understand the shock a little.