Ear Infections

Ear Infections....Have You Heard???

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Well, the truth is the vast majority of the time we are still doing the same things today that we’ve done for decades – treating the effects instead of addressing the cause. In the case of ear infections, that usually means parents walking out of their pediatrician’s office with a prescription for antibiotics. Well if you can’t already tell, that’s not working very well. Truth is we’ve known since the 1980s that using antibiotics for things like ear and sinus infections is not only mostly ineffective; it’s often dangerous too.  Children are continually challenged when the antibiotic prescribed for the ear infection, eliminates and lessens the beneficial bacteria of the gut and colon, thus causing dysregulation of the immune system and leaving them susceptible to recurrent infection.  Not only does this affect their immune system, but also their digestive system as well. Now they cannot process and eliminate food stuffs and toxins near as well, and this leads to a further “spilling over” effect of these into the bloodstream… which causes further immune reaction and inflammation and can begin the autoimmune cascade that may be linked to things such as allergies, asthma, eczema, and even ADHD later in life

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First off, most pediatricians are still telling parents some version of this, “Most kids get ear infections at some point, because their Eustachian tubes (think “drain pipe” for the ear) are more horizontal early in life, especially for some kids.” Well to keep it simple, that statement is true but absolutely far from solving the whole riddle. The root cause of this issue is far from “poor design” or bad luck related to genetics, it’s much more than that.

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In our office, we address the root cause of the problem, so the child can drain and heal if suffering… or even better, never get them in the first place. In caring for kids with ear infections we find almost each case history roots back to these main things:
• Some trauma and physical tension placed on the portions of the skull and upper neck surrounding the ears, leading to abnormal alignment and neuromuscular function of the ear tubes… and thus poor drainage.
• Poor nutrition and increased toxicity in the child’s environment, leading to inflammation and excessive production and build up of mucus and fluid in the ear.
• Misuse and overuse of antibiotics early in life leading to resistance and immune dysfunction, and thus reoccurrence of ear infections.

In our office we recommend:

 

1. Having your child checked by a trained Pediatric Chiropractor to see if there is any misalignment of the upper neck and cranial bones causing poor drainage and poor immune function.
2. Clean up their diet, especially limiting or removing dairy products and sugar.
3. Only use medications and antibiotics when absolutely necessary, so that the child’s immune system gets stronger instead of weaker.

 

Simply put, it’s common to think your child has to suffer from ear infections, but it certainly is not normal. Don’t let your kids suffer if you don’t have to, consider the things recommended here BEFORE you consider using antibiotics and I think you’ll really like the results.