I have asked several of my CI user friends if they would implant their baby (if they’re deaf).
So far, most of their answers have been “no.” Most of them were implanted later in life and were involved in the decision making process. They do very well with their CIs.
They want their child to have a choice.
On one hand, it is an elective surgery and there are surgery-related risks. On the other hand, children with CIs tend to do so much better (generally) if they’re implanted under the age of 3.
What would you do and why?
I could go on and on about this topic but I want to hear YOUR thoughts and opinions.
Life Is About Creating Yourself 
Ill discuss this when you get online. You may be busy, havent seen you on in a month. Havent even seen you respond to any comments me and others leave you.
I would of course implant my child if I had one ASAP after trying hearing aids
I am a hearing parent of two hoh kids. I would not implant my children until they were old enough to decide for themselves. I asked my 5 year old daughter recently that if she were to lose more hearing, would she want a CI and she said no, she would just use sign language.
I thought I knew the answer to this… but I honestly have NO idea. I'd definitely be trying hearing aids first along with speech and language therapy and of course signing…. Now that I know what I know, I would worry about my child's mapping when he or she couldn't give verbal feedback to an audiologist. Even with the neural testing, my audiologist needs to hear from me to get the mapping up to par…. and if something is off, it would be hard to know. Ugh. You opened up a Pandora's Box, girlfriend! 😀 …but this is a great topic for discussion among the demographic you are intending the question for… I'm assuming you are asking CI users who grew up with a severe hearing loss. Tough… tough question! I have thought about that a lot lately. Parents that do have to make this choice and have none of our experience or background to fall back on really have so much to learn about to make that choice themselves.
honestly. no. i wouldn't do it. i still feel like doing it to a baby is just so wrong. it doesn't even give the kid a chance to figure out things for themselves. if later on down the road, they wanted to, fine. but as a baby. no.
You're taking away a choice though if you wait until they are adults. They just don't have the same options. You can always take of a CI and be Deaf. But one cannot get the same result from a CI in adulthood that they do from a CI in infancy.