Earaches can make for a long night. Your child may be symptom free during the day - but in the middle of the night she wakes up crying and rubbing her ear. Depending on how bad the infection of the middle ear is, your child may be comforted by either Aleve, Advil, Motrin or Tylenol (never give aspirin to a child under 20) and a warm washcloth or a heating pad placed on the ear. In other instances, you have a long night ahead of you until your child can visit your physician and possibly receive numbing ear drops that relieve your child’s discomfort. Your physician may also prescribe antibiotics, depending on the age of the child and the seriousness of the infection. Antibiotics do not address the issue of pain, so be sure to give your child one of the medications listed above.
Just why do children get middle ear infections? The tubes connecting a child’s ear to throat are small - so they can become blocked more easily. When your child has an upper respiratory infection, such as a cold (allergies can also lead to ear infections), the tube can swell and become blocked - trapping fluid within the ear. That fluid is easily infected by the very germs in the nose and throat that are causing the cold.
The result? If the fluid becomes infected, the body’s immune system reacts and sends pus - another fluid - to fight the infection. The fluid creates pressure against the eardrum and can result in symptoms such as earache, fussiness, difficulty sleeping, or a fever. If you see yellow fluid coming from the ear, this is usually a sign that the eardrum has burst. The burst usually alleviates the pain and is not generally serious. The eardrum should heal on its own.
If the fluid does not become infected, the child’s ears may feel plugged and they may have trouble hearing. In either case, the fluid usually drains away within a few weeks.
A child’s hearing may be affected for a few months after an ear infection. A recent study on how temporary hearing loss can affect children found that repeated infections may affect how the brain processes sound. If your child suffers from chronic ear infections, your pediatrician may recommend inserting a tympanostomay tube into the ear to drain fluid from the ear.
So, how do you prevent ear infections?
Breastfeeding babies helps reduce the risk of ear infections because immunities are passed from the mother to child. Also, do not let your baby drink a bottle while lying down. When your baby is lying down, her inner ear tubes begin to open, more easily allowing fluids and germs from the throat to get through. Consider not giving your baby a pacifier, or weaning them from it by the age of 12 months in order to decrease the risk of ear infections.
Don’t smoke. Fumes and particles from the smoke can congest the inner ear tubes and increase your child’s risk for ear infections.
And never underestimate the importance of good hand washing - that means scrubbing and rubbing with soap and water for 20 seconds. Soap is still better than antibacterial hand washes.
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