Knocked Up Celebs

Joey McIntyre and wife, Barrett, welcomed a baby boy, Rhys, in December. And now Joey is opening up with the struggle that they are having with their son since finding out in follow up tests they found out Rhys has some hearing loss.

Says Barrett, “What’s wild is we will never really know how [anything] sounds for him.”

In a horrible sense of timing they found out the news just a couple of days before Christmas.

“We went through a full range of emotions,” says Barrett. “As a mother you want to protect your kids. I thought, ‘How could I let this happen?’ I felt responsible.”

“You’re just shocked, and your stomach gets in knots,” says Joey. “It feels like you’re holding your breath. And that feeling lasted for a few days, until you get educated. You go from, ‘Oh my God’ — fearing that someday my son might be walking into the street and I’m calling after him and he’s not going to hear me — to ‘It’s going to be okay’ to ‘It’s going to be amazing.’ Rhys’ hearing loss is part of who he is. His life is going to be as special as Griffin’s. There’s just work involved.”

Doctors say that Rhys condition won’t improve but there can be things to help him, like getting hearing aids fitted for both ears and signing him up for speech therapy. They won’t know for at least another nine months whether Rhys will need cochlear implants (electronic devices surgically inserted behind the ear), but no matter what happens, they’re optimistic. They sound like they are very informed of the situation, I’m sure that helps a lot.

Photo Source: People, Johnny Louis/WENN.com

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