Contrary to popular belief, it's not just the elderly who can lose their hearing. It's estimated that three out of every 1,000 newborns in the U.S. is born with hearing loss. Now, for the first time ever, there's a hearing aid especially designed to meet the needs of infants -- allowing them to do anything that their normal hearing peers do.

A lot of hearing aids adapted for use by children are still too big for infants -- which is why the Prisma 2K was developed as the first hearing aid specifically for infants. It is especially important to get a child a hearing aid during the toddler years because up to 50 percent of a child's speech development takes place in those years.

Audiologists and parents are praising the new hearing aid for its sound amplification features, its ease to put in and adjust, and its size -- which makes it barely noticeable on an infant's ears. According to the American Academy of Audiology about 12 thousand babies are born each year with hearing loss. But experts say early diagnosis and hi-tech hearing aids are helping them to develop like a child with normal hearing.