How Your Chiropractor Can Eliminate Your Child’s Earaches and Ear Infections
ByThe most commonplace purpose for visits to a pediatrician is earache. More than 70 percent of children will have had a minimum of one earache by the age of three, and nearly one-third will have had three or more earache occurrences. However, what might be surprising is that earache is also the most common occurrence for children under the age of five years to be taken to the chiropractor's office.
How Chiropractic Care Can Help Earache and Ear Infections
When a child with an earache is diagnosed with middle ear infection by the pediatrician, the usual treatment encompasses a course of antibiotics. New analysis, however, has concluded that such practices are often ill-advised. Antibiotics are only effective against bacterial pathogens, and due to the fact that the child's middle ear infection may be generated by a virus, antibiotics are ineffectual. This may be the reason for a child's chronic ear infections.
One of a variety of evaluations that a Honolulu chiropractor can make is whether the earache or ear infection is created by inflamation of the small nerves in the spine, called free nerve endings.
An abnormal tension in the small muscles of the neck is caused when these nerve endings are irritated. 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. Additionally, balance can also be affected.
Inadequate drainage of lymphatic ducts can be diagnosed by a chiropractor if there is elevated tension in the neck and paraspinal muscles on the side with the earache. In addition, the chiropractor will check to see which spinal vertebrae are either slightly out of alignment or not moving within their normal range. There are many reasons for such aaffliction due to the many bangs, jolts, and falls almost all children undergo growing up. Restoration of normal lymph drainage is most often accomplished with a short course of treatments that include spinal adjustments and manipulation of the neck muscles. If your child is struggling with 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 prevalent childhood illness second only to the common cold, accounts for nearly 30 million doctor visits every year. In addition, at least 6 million courses of antibiotics are extraneously prescribed for the problem. Just 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) endorses the AAP on the guidelines and underlines that chiropractic care 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."
Related posts: