Many children are plagued with ear infections and some have them chronically. There are many tools for taking care of this naturally and without the use of antibiotics. Naturopathic ear drops are an effective alternative to traditional medicated ear drops according to research. Many parents can begin giving these drops at the first sign and avoid antibiotics altogether, as the pain, inflammation and infection will subside usually within 3 days. A study published in Pediatrics has shown that treating an ear infection with antibiotics has no benefit when compared to doing nothing. One group received antibiotics and the other received natural medicines for symptom relief. Results: parent satisfaction with treatments was equal in the two groups at 12 days and 30 days after treatment. There was no difference in days missed at school, visits to doctors, no difference in re-occurrence rate by day 30 and no difference in clinical examination of eardrums at day 30. So in non-severe cases of ear infections this study proved the use of antibiotics is unnecessary. If you’re a parent of a child that gets frequent ear infections you may want to consider the use of herbal extracts to help.
The most common herbal extracts used:
Garlic
Mullein
Calendula
Olive oil
Most heath markets carry these drops and they can be very effective when given correctly under the advisement of your doctor. Be well and stay healthy!
Last month I did a blog, “Not Another Ear Infection” and wanted to follow up on this with a study conducted and published in Pediatrics current issue. Their objective was to examine the acute symptoms of an ear infection and use it to diagnose and manage acute otitis media (AOM). They studied whether AOM could be predicted by the reason for parental suspicion of AOM or by the occurrence, duration, and/or severity of symptoms. They also compared scores including or excluding tympanic-membrane examination of children with and without AOM.
PATIENTS AND METHODS:
Children aged 6 to 35 months with parental suspicion of AOM were eligible. Before tympanic-membrane examination, we registered on a structured questionnaire the reason for parental suspicion of AOM, symptoms, and score components.
RESULTS:
Of 469 children studied, 237 had AOM and 232 had respiratory tract infection without AOM. The most common reason for parental suspicion of AOM was restless sleep but this is not predictive for AOM, nor was ear rubbing. Neither the occurrence of fever nor the highest mean temperature within 24 hours predicted AOM. The duration and severity of symptoms were not predictive for AOM, although rhinitis lasted longer and conjunctivitis was more severe in children with AOM. The AOM severity-of-symptom scale, based solely on symptoms, was equal in children with and without AOM.
CONCLUSIONS:
AOM cannot be predicted by the occurrence, duration, or severity of symptoms at otitis-prone age. Likewise, solely symptom-based scores do not differentiate between respiratory tract infections with or without AOM. Thus, tympanic-membrane examination is crucial in the diagnosis and severity classification of AOM in clinical practice and research settings.
The take away for parents is that your child may not show symptoms that correlate to a proper ear exam, they may be getting misdiagnosed and therefore improperly prescribed medication. Make sure the doctor you see looks in their ears and confirms infection is present. If your child has a history of ear infections then it is time to find out why their body is getting sick, fix the source of the problem and see the infections vanish!
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