Ear Infection Causes and Chiropractic Care For Children
This is the time of year when nearly 35% of all pediatrician visits are due to ear infections in children. Typically, antibiotics have been given as the best way to treat an ear infection. Doctors are finally beginning to realize that antibiotic therapy may not be the best way to treat ear infections. They do not always work and they do nothing to prevent future occurrences.
Reoccurring ear infections are a major problem itself. They can lead to permanent hearing loss, speech problems and developmental delays. Often, when antibiotics are over used, the infections keep coming back and will grow more and more resistant.
Before understanding alternative ways to treat ear infections in children aside from antibiotics, one must first understand the cause of ear infections. Most commonly, an ear infection results from a build up of fluid in the ear. Anyone who has ever had a child have an ear infection knows it is very painful and causes much distress. This fluid builds up and is unable to drain properly, typically after the child has had a cold or allergy issues. Family history including sibling experiences with ear infections can increase the likelihood of getting one. Milk sensitivity is another factor. When a child has sensitivity to cow’s milk, they will produce a lot of mucus and have a constant runny nose. Often after vaccinations, children will have cold-like symptoms which may also lead to ear infections. Environmental factors such as seasonal allergies and exposure to second hand smoke has been shown to increase the number of ear infections a child may have during their first few years. Being bottle fed and in a day care setting around other ill children can increase the occurrence of ear infections also.
As you can see, the causes of ear infections are many and can encompass a large percentage of children today. Luckily for parents, there are ways to treat and even prevent ear infections altogether that do not involve antibiotics, tubes or any other unnatural or invasive procedure.
Chiropractic care can bring pain relief from ear infections and there is evidence to support chiropractic as a preventative tool to ward off reoccurrence of ear infection. It has been found that in a number of children, the trauma of birth can lead to spinal misalignment. This biomechanical issue prevents fluid from draining correctly and disrupts normal nerve function. This also creates stress on the young baby’s central nervous system which affects the child’s resistance to disease. Chiropractors can correct this problem in children right from birth. This correction lets the ear drain the fluid naturally and prevents future buildup. This proper function of the baby’s nervous system also helps them build up their own antibodies, helping to further prevent unnecessary antibiotic usage. By correcting these issues as early as possible, a pediatric chiropractic adjustment to fix birth-caused misalignment is actually treating the root cause of most ear infections rather than just the unbearable painful symptoms.
This simple spinal adjustment at a chiropractic clinic may have to be done just once or repeatedly until the ear fluid is able to take care of itself as it should. This gives parents a medicine free and pain free way of correcting what amounts to a biomechanical problem.