How Your Chiropractor Can Decrease Your Child’s Earaches and Ear Infections
Earache is the most widespread basis for office visits to pediatricians. By the age of three years, more than 70 percent of children will have had at least one episode of earache, and about a third will have had three or more occurrences. But, what might be unforeseen is that earache is also the most widespread basis for children under the age of five years to be escorted by parents to the chiropractor’s office.
How Chiropractic Care Relates to Earache and Ear Infections
A pediatrician who determines that a child with an earache has a middle ear infection will usually prescribe antibiotics as a standard course of treatment. Advanced research, however, has determined that such practices are often imprudent. Antibiotics are only effective against bacterial pathogens, and because the child’s middle ear infection may be produced by a virus, antibiotics are ineffectual. This may account for a child’s chronic ear infections.
One of the many assessments 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.
An aberrant tension in the small muscles of the neck is produced when these nerve endings are irritated. This muscle tension can place pressure on the lymphatic drainage ducts resulting in inadequate drainage from inside the ear, thereby stopping the body from being able to naturally fix the problem. Additionally, balance can also be affected.
Assessment by a chiropractor of such a problem is made by the detection of increased tension in the neck and paraspinal muscles. Normally more tension is felt on the side of earache. The chiropractor also checks for spinal vertebrae that are either slightly out of alignment or are not moving within their normal range. This condition may have been the consequence of any one of the number of bangs, jolts and falls that almost all children encounter in the early years of their life. Frequently, a short series of spinal adjustments and manipulation of the neck muscles will assist in restoring normal lymph drainage. If your child is experiencing the pain of an earache or an ear infection, see your Honolulu chiropractor as soon as possible.
Advanced Research and Guidelines
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), ear infection, the most prevalent childhood illness second only to the common cold, accounts for nearly 30 million doctor visits every year. What’s more, at least 6 million courses of antibiotics are extraneously prescribed for the condition.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) commends the AAP on the guidelines and reiterates that chiropractic treatment 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.”
