Earaches Resolved and Tubes Avoided – A Case Study
Documentation of the improvement of Otitis Media and the avoidance of recommended ear tubes for a baby boy appears in the May 28, 2013 issue of the scientific periodical, the Journal of Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health. Otitis Media is the scientific name for ear infections and according to medicinenet.com is the most common diagnosis in sick children in the U.S. with 75 percent of children being diagnosed with this condition before they even start school.
The authors of this study note that in the first three years of life, more than two thirds of children are medically diagnosed with one or more episodes of acute otitis media (AOM). Of these, the authors report that one-third have had three or more episodes. Standard medical care is antibiotic treatment. However, the study authors point out that, “The American Academy of Pediatrics/American Academy of Family Practice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines recommend the “wait and see” approach. This approach being based on the belief that 70-80% of AOM cases self-resolve.”
In this case a 16 month old baby boy was brought to the chiropractor by his mother with the primary complaint of recurrent ear infections. His mother was trying to avoid having tympanostomy tubes placed in her son’s ears. The study notes that this baby had a very difficult birth by cesarean and suffered many problems resulting in his being in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for seventeen days after birth.
A chiropractic examination was performed utilizing a paraspinal thermal exam and static vertebral segmental and motion palpation. The findings revealed subluxations at the base of the skull and in the upper middle back, causing interference to the baby’s nervous system. Specific adjustments were then given to the two detected areas of subluxations.
A week after the baby began chiropractic care, his mother reported that her child had decreased symptomatology associated with the bilateral ear infections. The study reports that during the fourth week of care, the patient had an appointment with the pediatrician, revealing that he no longer had bilateral ear infections and that both ears were clear of fluid.
The boy continued to be symptom free from the fourth week through the tenth week of the study. In the eleventh week, the boy showed signs of some ear infection the day after receiving his vaccination. Other than that one incident, the boy has been symptom free throughout the writing of this study and has not needed any antibiotics.