What is otitis media?
Otitis media, which is most commonly seen in children clinically, is an ear disease caused by viruses or bacteria that cause inflammatory changes in the middle ear area and can be divided into two categories: acute and chronic, each of which can be divided into non-suppurative and suppurative.
Acute non-suppurative otitis media is seen in children only as a general upper respiratory tract infection, with no symptoms of ear pain or running water in the ear canal, but with mild hearing impairment. Acute suppurative otitis media, on the other hand, can present with symptoms such as fever, ear pain, hearing loss, and pus outflow, and can even turn into chronic otitis media.
According to the National Center for Health, two-thirds of children have had acute otitis media by age one, and by age three, nearly half of children have had at least three acute otitis media. The incidence of otitis media is even higher around age 7, with an incidence of up to 15 percent.
Since otitis media can lead to hearing damage in children, it is important not to take this disease lightly.
Description: The dangers of otitis media
Although hearing damage caused by otitis media can usually be recovered with treatment, a very small percentage of children may become permanently deaf as a result. Permanent deafness is irreversible, and it can have a tremendous impact on a child’s future growth. Therefore, parents should take their child to the hospital as soon as they notice any hearing problems and get timely treatment.
Observation: How to detect hearing abnormalities in children
Because of their young age, most children do not know what hearing impairment is. They think that the sounds in their surroundings are originally like this, so they will not tell their parents when their hearing is damaged. Moreover, children do not show any obvious symptoms of hearing impairment. This makes early detection and early treatment more difficult. Therefore, it is important for parents to observe their children’s behavior in order to detect problems in a timely manner.
Children with hearing impairment will generally appear some abnormal behavior –
1, not responsive to the outside world;
2, not willing to communicate with others;
3.A sudden drop in academic performance;
4.Like to turn up the sound of TV and stereo;
5.Anxious and restless or keep scratching their ears with their hands.
If your child suddenly develops these symptoms, parents should promptly take him or her to the hospital’s otology department for an examination to determine if there is a problem with the child’s hearing, and then carry out the relevant treatment.
Care: Home remedies for otitis media
Before a child is 6 years old, his or her Eustachian tube is relatively flat and short because it is not yet mature. Once the child’s nose and throat are infected, it is easier for pathogens to enter the middle ear through the Eustachian tube and cause otitis media. This is the reason for the high incidence of otitis media in childhood.
Although there is no way to completely avoid the occurrence of otitis media, parents can still minimize the damage caused by the disease to their child’s hearing during his or her otitis media period by using some appropriate home care methods.
1. Otitis media is caused by bacterial infection, so parents should choose sensitive antibiotics for their children under the guidance of a doctor, usually using penicillin and penicillin family, and should not blindly use antibiotics indiscriminately. The route of administration is mostly intravenous drip, which can make the drug reach the lesion faster and take effect.
2.Drops into the ear canal are an important method of treating otitis media. Ear drops can act directly on the local area of the lesion, so that the effect of the drug can be more fully developed.
When giving the drops to your child, you can have him lie on his side in bed or sit on a chair with his head tilted to one side, and then administer the drops.
The child’s external ear canal has a certain inclination, so the ear canal should be straightened before the drops are administered so that the medicine can flow smoothly into the ear canal. After putting in the drops, you should gently press your child’s ear screen several times with your fingers to make the medicine reach the affected area.
4. If your child has pus coming out of his ear, clean his ear canal with 3% hydrogen peroxide first, and then apply the drops. The child should lie on his side after the drops and wait for the medicine to penetrate into the tissue before getting up and moving around.
5. Before giving the drops to your child, you should pay attention to the following: the temperature of the solution should be similar to the body temperature, and if the solution is too cold, it should be slightly warmed up to avoid the child’s nausea and vomiting after the drops.
In addition, the dropper should not touch the wall of the external ear canal to avoid contamination.
6.Keep the outer ear canal and the skin in front of the ear clean at all times. If there is purulent secretion, clean it up in time.
7. If your child has chronic otitis media and still does not get well after the above treatment, and the pus has a foul odor, and there is redness and pain behind the ear, it means that it may be combined with mastoiditis, so you should take your child to the hospital in time for consultation and treatment, and take pictures if necessary. In case of chronic mastoiditis, surgery is also required.
Health Tips
1, otitis media is a major cause of deafness in infants and young children, so it is important to have your child vaccinated regularly, pay attention to physical exercise from an early age, let your child go outdoors more often, get more sunlight, promote metabolism, and enhance his physical fitness and ability to resist disease.
2. When the weather is cold or the climate changes drastically, make sure your child pays attention to keeping warm and preventing upper respiratory tract infections.
3. For children who often have pus coming out of their ears, make sure to wash the pus out of his ears frequently. This is done by pulling the child’s ear backwards and downwards, while pushing the ear screen forward so that the external ear canal becomes straight and open, and then gently cleaning it with a sterile cotton swab.
3. Before your child takes a bath or washes his hair, fill his two ear holes with sterile cotton balls to prevent sewage from entering his ears. In addition, do not let your child dive or swim to prevent hearing damage due to tympanic membrane rupture.
4. The child’s diet should be light, easy to digest and nutritious. Make him eat more fresh vegetables and fruits, and do not eat spicy and stimulating foods such as wine, onion and garlic to prevent internal attack by heat toxins. Usually, you can also let your child eat a little more food to clear the fire and defeat the poison, such as honeysuckle lotion, green bean soup, etc.