One of the most common illnesses in babies and young children are ear infections, with over 10 million new cases presented every year. Ear infections can be incredibly painful for the child, causing them to cry with discomfort and leaving parents feeling helpless for a solution.
If your child has an ear infection, you might notice these common symptoms:
- Grabbing or pulling at their ear lobes
- Fever
- Irritability
- More than normal crying
- Ear drainage
Unfortunately, almost half of all children will have at least one middle ear infection before they’re a year old. And furthermore, by age three two-thirds of children will have at least one ear infection. For most of us parents, ear infections are an unavoidable aspect of child rearing.
Ear infections are caused when fluid is unable to leave the ear canal. If the fluids have no where to go, they simply sit there in the canal, causing bacterial buildups and irritation of the canal. To get rid of an ear infection, this fluid needs to find a way out of the canal.
Most of the time, if a child has an ear infection, parents will take them to the doctor, where the doctor will promptly write a quick prescription for an antibiotic. The problem is that for a lot of children, ear infections can become a chronic condition, which means parents are having to refill antibiotic prescription after antibiotic prescription. And as recent research shows, the more often a child takes an antibiotic, the less effective that antibiotic becomes at assisting the immune system.
So, what are parents supposed to do? We don’t want to watch our children suffer? But, we also don’t want to keep using ineffective antibiotics over and over again. For many of us, we seem stuck in this limbo of childcare, not knowing what is the best approach to take.
Chiropractic to Help Chronic Ear Infections
One important element of ear infection care is the health of the child’s nervous system. The spine and the ear canal are in direct connection with one another; meaning, of course, that the ongoing maintenance of the spinal cord can make for a healthier inner ear.
If your child has ongoing subluxations of their spine, the drainage in their ears may become a chronic health concern. But, if the spine can be restored to its natural alignment, the ear, nose and throat are may also returned a healthier state.
What do Chiropractors Actually Do for Ear Infections?
Chiropractors are able to provide treatments that focus on the upper-cervical manipulation of the ear, by stimulating the occiput (the back of the skull), the atlas and the first vertebra of the neck. When these parts of the nervous system are adjusted regularly, they encourage the middle ear to drain. By removing this excess fluid from the ear canal, the child’s chance of infection lessens greatly.
You can read an interesting case study about a Chiropractor who specializes in children’s ear infections from the American Chiropractic Association here.
How many treatments will this take?
On average, most children see a difference after 6 to 8 chiropractic adjustments.
Is your child struggling with chronic ear infections? Are you frustrate refilling your prescriptions and constantly taking time off from work to schedule visits with your child’s pediatrician?
Give your chiropractor a call today to schedule a series of visits for your child and see the powerful effect that chiropractic care can have on your child’s health.