Ear Infections.

Otitis Media (OM) can be a source of stress in a family. Affecting 2/3 of children below the age of 5 OM is extremely common. Symptoms of OM include:

• Headache,
  
• Ear tugging in children
• Earache
  
• Itching or other discomfort in the ear or ear canal
• Drainage from the ear
• Hearing loss
• Hearing phenomenon such as buzzing
  
• Fever/chills
• Irritability
• Malaise(feeling of general illness)
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea

OM is when the inner ear becomes infected. It begins with the eustacian tube no longer equalizing the pressure between the inner ear and the outside world. At this point if the immune system is weak and the inner ear is colonized with pathogenic bacteria, the bacteria can spawn and cause infection.

Common treatment includes antibiotics, antihistamines and pain relievers. In more severe cases the use of surgical removal of the tonsils, or the implantation of tubes in the ear drum (Myringotomy) to allow drainage of the inner ear and normalization of pressure (possibly relieving pain). The use of myringotomy replacing the tonsillectomy as the treatment of choice.

Myringotomy is very common with over a million procedures done in a year. By way of contrast there around 600,000 tonsillectomies performed in a year in America. The success rate for improvement post surgery of symptoms is only around 50%. In addition to this The Journal of the American Medical Association in 1994 stated that myringotomy was appropriate in only 42% of all cases it reviewed.

This means that 58% of all myringotomies at the time of publication were unnecessary.

Currently the prescription of antibiotics is the treatment of choice for OM. This is in spite of a 1997 study published in the British Medicine Journal that recommended against the use of antibiotics in OM.
the study found:

• Frequently OM is self limiting, and there is no proven benefit to the use of antibiotics in OM.
• The use of antibiotics does not shorten the course of OM, it does not prevent re occurrence of OM and it does not lessen symptoms of OM.
• While mastoiditis (infection of the mastoid- a section of bone behind the ear) is a concern, there is no evidence that the use of antibiotics prevents mastoid infection.

While we feel better using antibiotics in children with OM it is not always the correct treatment. There are times OM requires antibiotics, and I have written antibiotics in those cases. The use of antibiotics though, must be secondary to seeking the cause.

The cause:
90% of children with OM have some allergy, either to food or to the environment. This allergy causes inflammation of the eustacian tube, thereby closing it and causing the cascade as seen earlier. Elimination of the allergic reaction is the single best approach to OM.

Allergy to food often begins in the first year of life. Common causes include:

1. If a child is weaned too early. Cited here
2. When the mother consumes common allergens during breast feeding
3. When a child is pre-maturely introduced to foods, especially common allergens

Common allergens from most to least common:

• Cows milk
  
• Wheat
• Egg
• Peanut
• Soy
• Corn
• Tomato
• Chicken
• Apple
  

Allergy list cited here, and here.

Through the elimination of the most common allergens we see the best cure rates (around 90%)

If your child has chronic ear infections, it is worth your time to consult with a naturopathic doctor to review the possibility of food allergy as a possible cause.