When 3-year-old Doudou caught a cold just after winter, he occasionally coughed and had a runny nose, but his mother didn’t care because he didn’t have a fever and could eat and sleep. After some days, the child suddenly cried and tapped his ears at night, and when his mother took a flashlight, she found something sticky in his ears and quickly took him to the emergency room.
After a careful examination, the doctor told Doudou’s mother that her child’s eardrum was red, swollen and perforated, and that she had acute otitis media, and that the slimy stuff was the pus coming out of her ear. The doctor also told the mother that if otitis media is found late or left untreated, it will gradually develop into a chronic disease and affect the baby’s hearing. It was a good thing that Doudou’s mother brought her child to the doctor in time, and after careful care, Doudou was soon back to health.
This experience impressed Doudou’s mother, but she also had a lot of questions: Why does a cold cause otitis media? What are the signs of otitis media in children? What are the causes of otitis media? Don’t worry, let’s start from the beginning.
Children are more susceptible to otitis media than adults
A child’s immune system is developing and dysfunctional, which makes them vulnerable to germs. In addition, children’s eustachian tubes are wider, flatter and shorter compared to adults. After respiratory infections, pathogenic substances are prone to enter the ear from the nasopharynx, especially when you have a cold, the eustachian tube is swollen and blocked, and the space between the eardrum and the eustachian tube may be filled with fluid and poorly drained, making it easiest for bacteria to grow and multiply in stagnant water and cause disease.
Respiratory tract infections are a common cause of otitis media. When there are problems with the tissues and organs near the ear, such as suffering from rhinitis, sinusitis, adenoid hypertrophy and tonsillitis, they are also good factors for otitis media. When a child has an infectious disease or a reduced resistance, viruses and bacteria can take advantage of the situation and cause otitis media.
Typical signs of otitis media
Earache: Some children will have sudden earache. Most patients have more intense pain before the perforation, and the earache will be relieved after the pus flows out after the perforation. Small babies will cry a lot and show signs such as rubbing the affected ear, scratching the ear, shaking the head and patting the head.
Pus flow: After the tympanic membrane is perforated, there is fluid flow, which can be plasma, mucus, mucous pus, or in severe cases, mixed with bloody secretions.
Hearing loss: Feelings of inaudibility and blurred sounds; young children are slow to respond to sound and have difficulty concentrating. If a child has a disease in one ear and normal hearing in the other, it may go undetected for a long time without careful observation and is only discovered during a physical examination.
Tinnitus: Older children will report ringing in the ears. This tinnitus is mostly low-pitched, intermittent sounds, such as splintering, buzzing and running water, that occur in the ear when the head moves or when yawning or blowing the nose.
Systemic symptoms: fever, dizziness, headache, depression, poor appetite, and in some children, gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea may occur. A small number of children with severe cases may develop complications such as meningitis.
Early otitis media symptoms are atypical, and because children are not very articulate, parents can easily overlook them. Older children will complain of ear pain, ear congestion, ear swelling, a feeling of lack of air, and difficulty hearing sounds. Younger children will not complain, but simply have frequent ear tugging, or may be unresponsive, uncaring, or have difficulty concentrating.
Parents must be aware if their child has any of the following.
(1) Often scratches his or her ears and shakes his or her head.
(2) Says “ears ringing” or “bugs buzzing” a lot.
(3) Inattentiveness. When talking to the child, the child shows that he or she is not listening.
(4) Suddenly becomes non-verbal.
(5) Be careful when doing this, or you will give your child a middle ear infection!
Blowing the nose
Some people tend to use their fingers to pinch both sides of the nose when blowing their nose and forcefully blow out the snot. Since the front nostrils are small and the back nostrils are large, when you pinch both nostrils to blow the nose, the snot cannot flow out from the smaller front nostrils, but gushes from the nasopharynx through the eustachian tube to the middle ear cavity, which can lead to otitis media because of the large amount of bacteria in the snot.
This is what you should do: hold your finger on one nostril and blow the nasal snot out of the opposite nostril with a little force, and then blow the other side with the same method.
Breastfeeding
The baby’s eustachian tube is relatively straight, and the lumen is short with a wide inner diameter. If the baby is allowed to lie down to eat milk, the milk can choke into the middle ear through the eustachian tube and cause otitis media. If the milk flow is too rapid, the baby will not be able to swallow and cause choking and coughing, which will easily make the milk flow backwards into the middle ear.
Here’s what you should do: Pick up your baby while feeding and keep his head elevated to prevent milk from flowing into the middle ear and causing infection. After feeding, pick up your baby vertically and pat his back to expel the air from his stomach before letting him lie down.
Swimming
If you swim in an unclean pool, once you choke, the water will easily enter the eustachian tube and bacteria or viruses will enter, causing an infection from the inside out. In addition, unclean pool water may also enter through the external ear canal and induce otitis media.
Here’s what you should do: Take your child to a regular swimming pool, take a shower right after swimming, and gently wipe your ears with a cotton swab to absorb any residual water.
6 reminders to prevent otitis media
1. Exercise to enhance resistance and reduce colds.
2.Prevent respiratory tract infections and various infectious diseases by timely vaccination.
3.Actively treat nasal and pharyngeal diseases to prevent germs from entering the middle ear.
4.Drain the water from the ear canal in time after swimming.
5.Learn the correct way to blow the nose.
6. Maintain appropriate body position for breastfeeding.