How Your Chiropractor Can Decrease Your Child’s Earaches and Ear Infections
The most commonplace basis for visits to a pediatrician is earache. More than 70 percent of children will have had not less than one earache by the age of three, and approximately one-third will have had three or more earache occurrences. Although, what might be unforeseen is that earache is also the most widespread reason for children under the age of five years to be brought to the chiropractor’s office.
How Chiropractic Care Can Help Earache and Ear Infections
When a child who has an earache is diagnosed with middle ear infection by the pediatrician, the general treatment involves a course of antibiotics. Current analysis, however, has determined that this type of treatment is often imprudent. Antibiotics are only effective against bacterial pathogens, and because the child’s middle ear infection may be caused by a virus, antibiotics are ineffectual. This may be the reason for a child’s chronic ear infections.
One of the many evaluations that a Honolulu chiropractor can make is whether the earache or ear infection is produced by irritation of the small nerves in the spine, called free nerve endings.
When these nerve endings are inflamed, an abnormal tension is produced in the small muscles of the neck. This muscle tension can produce pressure on the lymphatic drainage ducts resulting in inadequate drainage from inside the ear, hence preventing the body from its ability to naturally correct the problem. In addition, balance can also be affected.
Identification by a chiropractor of such a condition is made by the finding of increased tension in the neck and paraspinal muscles. Normally more tension is felt on the side of earache. In addition, the chiropractor will look to see which spinal vertebrae are either marginally out of alignment or not moving within their normal range. This problem may have been the consequence of any one of the variety of bangs, jolts and falls that the majority of children experience in the early years of their life. Frequently, a short course of spinal adjustments and manipulation of the neck muscles can help to restore normal lymph drainage. If your child is suffering from an earache or an ear infection, contact your Honolulu chiropractor as soon as possible.
Advanced Research and Guidelines
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), ear infection, the most frequent childhood sickness second only to the common cold, accounts for nearly 30 million doctor visits each year. What’s more, at least 6 million courses of antibiotics are causelessly prescribed for the problem.Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released new guidelines for treating pediatric ear inflammation, and definitively recommended a period of “watchful waiting” since, in many cases, infections clear up on their own, without medication.
The American Chiropractic Association (ACA) applauds the AAP on the guidelines and reiterates that chiropractic management is a “good first option” for treating ear infection conservatively. “Doctors of chiropractic have been treating children for decades with great success – helping them to avoid painful ear infections, antibiotic overuse and resistance, and ear tube surgery,” said ACA President Donald Krippendorf, DC. “Particularly when dealing with young children, drugs and surgery should be an absolute last resort.”
