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Ear infection, otherwise known medically as otitus media, afflicts almost every child sometime during childhood. Rare is the child who can evade this nasty and painful infection. Most of us who have had young children remember the first signs of infection clearly: the pulling of the ear(s), the all night screaming fests, the lack of interest in eating. It's enough to send my face down into my hands as I write this, knocking on wood and praying my 16 month old can make it through the week without getting one.
We never think about how the inside of one's head looks but believe it or not a baby's head is VERY different from an adult's. If you look at a young infant's head or even a toddler's, their heads seem just huge. At approximately one year of age the average child's head is 80% the size of a grown up adult's. That fact just amazes me! Their ears, eyes and nose all seem much lower on their heads, also. This brings us to the first major cause of ear infections- the Eustachian tubes. These tiny tubes connect the middle ear to the inside of the throat. They are responsible for the popping noise we hear when we open our mouths really wide or when our ears hurt when we go way up in airplanes if we don't hear the popping noise. (A very good reason to chew gum when flying!) They keep our ear drums from literally exploding because they equalize the air pressure in our middle ears to keep the ear drums from bulging out when pressure builds within. They keep air going into the middle ear to keep it dry in there. They are also responsible for most of the ear infections in infants and young children. How you ask? Our Eustachian tubes, as adults, run more up and down than a baby's. A baby's nose and mouth tend to be more in line with their noses if you look closely which unfortunately means their Eustachian tubes also run more horizontal or across. How many times have you laid your baby down with a bottle or feed him or her as they lean back in your arm? I admit I am guilty of the first one myself (if I don't preoccupy his hands when diaper changing he wiggles too much) and have made many trips to the pediatrician because of it. What happens is the fluid then drains down into the Eustachian tubes because the child is laying back to drink. Formula, juice, etc. ends up inside the middle ear. Bacteria love this wet, dark and warm environment. The next thing you know you are driving to the doctor's office. Those hook-shaped bottles have become very popular choices because you can sit the baby more upright to drink and the formula still fills the nipple without having to lay the baby back into what my family has coined "the dangerous position". Rule number one to prevent ear infections is to sit your baby upright to eat. Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article Ways to help prevent ear infections in Speech Disorders is owned by Schatze Rasmussen. Permission to republish Ways to help prevent ear infections in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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