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Ear Care
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Ear Care Tips |
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 Have your ears examined at least once every year by your physician, audiologist, or any hearing specialist.
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The ear is normally a self-cleaning mechanism. Wax acts in a protective manner, catching particles that may land in the ear. Fine hairs inside the ear canal constantly move wax and sloughed skin out of the canal. Wax and skin can build up inside the ear canal. If the canal is not clean, the eardrum can become completely blocked, greatly reducing hearing and eventually cause permanent damage. |
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One cause of excessive wax buildup is the use of cotton swabs. A cotton swab is larger than the ear canal. Sometimes, when you use a cotton swab to clean your ear, you can push wax deeper into the ear canal and partially or completely block it. |
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Your doctor or hearing specialist should remove your excess wax. Do not try and remove ear wax with cotton swabs, hair pins, or other hard objects. You can damage your ear canal or eardrum. |
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To maintain a clean and healthy ear canal, use an eye dropper to place two or three drops of pure apple cider vinegar in your ears, two to three times a week. You can also flush out the ear canal using warm water with a rubber syringe. Be very careful in attempting to do this. You do not want to aim the stream from the syringe directly toward your eardrum. |
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If you have itching inside your ear canal, use an eye dropper to place a few drops of baby oil in your canal once or twice a week to lubricate. |
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Visit your physician or hearing specialist regularly if you frequently have fluid in your middle ear. Fluid normally drains from the ear via the eustachian tube. If the eustachian tube becomes blocked, fluid can:
 cause damage to the small bones in the middle ear,
cause extreme pain, and
possibly rupture the eardrum.
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If pus flows from any part of your ear, you probably have some kind of infection and should see a physician immediately. You can lose your hearing if you allow the condition to continue.
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Common symptoms associated with hearing impairment are ringing sounds in the ears, a feeling of pressure in the ears, and dizziness. Call your doctor your hearing health care professional to test your hearing if you experience these symptoms, particularly if you've recently began taking a new medication or experienced some kind of head trauma. |
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Common childhood diseases such as mumps, measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough, or any high fever can leave permanent hearing impairment. Always have your child's hearing tested if he/she has had any of these conditions in addition to regular ear care. |
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Women who are exposed to German measles, measles, mumps, or any other viral diseases during their pregnancies have a very high risk of giving birth to a baby with serious hearing impairment. Have your baby's hearing tested if you have been exposed to these conditions during your pregnancy, or even if you suspect hearing impairment. |
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Ear Care for children |
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How to know if the baby has an ear infection ? |
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Causes of ear infections? |
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When to call a doctor ? |
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How to prevent ear infections in future ? |
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Can Ear tubes help comabt ear infection ? |
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Can ear infections be serious ? |
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How to know if the baby has an ar infection ?
The easiest way to tell if your baby has an ear infection (also known as acute otitis media) — or any other illness, for that matter — is a change in his mood. If he turns fussy, or starts crying more than usual, you should be on the lookout for a problem. If he develops a fever (whether slight or high) you have another big clue. Ear infections tend to strike after a common cold or sinus infection, so keep that in mind too. You may also notice the following symptoms:
Your baby pulls, grabs, or tugs at his ears. This may be a sign he's in pain. (However, babies do pull on their ears for all kinds of reasons or for no reason at all, so if your baby seems fine otherwise, he probably doesn't have an ear infection.)
Diarrhea. The virus that causes ear infections can also affect the gastrointestinal tract.
Reduced appetite. Ear infections can cause gastrointestinal upset. They can also make it painful for your baby to swallow and chew. You may notice your baby pull away from the breast or bottle after he takes the first few sips.
A yellow or whitish fluid draining from the ear. This doesn't happen to most babies, but it's a sure sign of infection. It also signals that a small hole has developed in the eardrum. Don't worry — this will heal on its own once the infection is treated.
A foul odor emanating from the ear.
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What causes ear infections ?
An ear infection results when fluid and bacteria build up in the area around your baby's eardrum. Normally any fluid that enters this area leaves pretty quickly through the Eustachian tube (which connects the middle ear to the back of the nose and throat) when your baby yawns or swallows. But if the Eustachian tube is blocked — common during colds, sinus infections, even allergy season — it traps the fluid in the middle ear. Bacteria like to grow in dark, warm, wet places, so a fluid-filled ear becomes the perfect breeding ground. As the infection worsens, so does the swelling in and around the eardrum, and, as a result, the pain. Fever develops as your baby's body attempts to fight the infection.
Babies are particularly susceptible to ear infections because their Eustachian tubes are short (about 1/2 inch) and horizontal. As they grow to adulthood, the tube triples in length to 1 1/2 inches and become more vertical, so fluid can drain more easily. Ear infections are one of the most common childhood illnesses. Although there are no statistics on how many babies get them, the American Academy of Pediatrics expects that most children will have gotten at least one ear infection by the time they turn 3.
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When to call a doctor ?
Call the doctor at the first sign of an ear infection. She'll ask you to come in so she can take a look in your baby's ear with an instrument called an otoscope. An eardrum that's red, bulging, and possibly draining is likely infected. She may also look to see whether the eardrum moves in response to a device called a pneumatic otoscope, which releases a brief puff of air into the ear. If it's not moving, you have one more clue that fluid is collecting in the middle ear and it may be infected.
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How to prevent Ear infections in future ?
Babies who attend daycare or playgroups with other children are more prone to getting ear infections because they're exposed to more germs. That doesn't mean you should keep your baby home all the time. That's not fun or practical and even if you managed to do it, your baby would still catch an illness here or there. Instead, wash your hands (and your baby's hands) often, and try these prevention ideas:
Keep your baby up to date on his vaccines. They help prevent certain illnesses that can lead to an ear infection. For example, the Hib vaccine has helped tremendously in reducing the number of ear infections in babies, and the new pneumococcal vaccine can help prevent them as well. If your baby has suffered repeated ear infections, especially after bouts with the flu, you may want to consider an annual flu vaccine, but talk to your doctor first. Only children over 6 months old can get a flu shot.
Breastfeed your baby for a minimum of six months. A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, which appeared in the journal Pediatrics, showed that children who are breastfed for the first six months of life are less likely to develop ear infections. In fact, the risk of ear infections was 70 percent greater in formula-fed babies. Practitioners such as Ruben believe that mothers transfer certain immune-building antibodies to their babies through breast milk. However, those antibodies seem to decrease after the six-month mark.
Limit your baby's exposure to tobacco smoke. Even a weekend spent in a house with a smoker can significantly harm a baby and increase his chances of getting an ear infection. Tobacco smoke seems to suppress the immune system, making it more difficult for your baby to fight off infection.
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Can ear tubes prevent ear infection ?
Babies with multiple ear infections — which, for many children, is actually one ear infection that lingers on for months despite antibiotic treatment — may be good candidates for ear tubes. This procedure, known as tympanostomy, is the most common surgery performed in North America on children under 4, according to a study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. In the United States alone, doctors perform roughly one million ear-tube insertions each year.
During the procedure, which is done under general anesthesia, an otolaryngologist makes a tiny incision in the child's eardrum and inserts a millimeters-long tube into the slit. These tubes act as a vent, letting air in and fluid out so bacteria can't flourish. "It helps the Eustachian tube work better," says Ruben.
Your pediatrician may suggest this surgical solution because a baby with persistent fluid in his ears (or otitis media with effusion) is not only a prime candidate for repeated ear infections but also for hearing loss. Babies who have trouble hearing may suffer delays in language development.
Still, the procedure is considered controversial and there's little consensus among doctors on whether it's really necessary. Studies have shown that some babies who've had recurrent ear infections are a little behind when it comes to school readiness. But somewhere between ages 2 and 5 the connection between chronic ear infections and decreased school readiness disappears, says Joanne E. Roberts, a senior scientist at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Children with chronic ear infections eventually perform on par with their peers who didn't battle ear troubles in the first few years.
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Can Ear infections be serious?
They can be. A severe or untreated infection can rupture your child's eardrum. Ruptures don't happen very often and they generally heal quickly, but it's important to see your child's doctor for a follow-up to make sure that the infection has cleared and that the eardrum is healing well. Repeated ear infections can sometimes lead to hearing loss and scarring. In very rare cases, untreated ear infections can lead to an infection of the skull behind the ear (mastoiditis), or meningitis.
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