With or without antibiotic treatment, you can help to ease discomfort by giving your child acetaminophen or ibuprofen for pain and fever as needed. Your doctor also may recommend using pain-relieving ear drops as long as the eardrum isn't ruptured. Fluid buildup in the middle ear also blocks sound, which can lead to temporary hearing problems. Kids having a problem might:. In kids who have otitis media with effusion, the fluid behind the eardrum can block sound, so mild temporary hearing loss can happen, but might not be obvious.
A child whose eardrum has ruptured might have ringing or buzzing in the ear and not hear as well as usual. Very rarely, ear infections that don't go away or severe repeated middle ear infections can lead to complications. So kids with an earache or a sense of fullness in the ear, especially when combined with fever, should be seen by their doctors if they aren't getting better after a couple of days. Other things can cause earaches, such as teething , a foreign object in the ear, or hard earwax.
Your doctor can find the cause of your child's discomfort and treat it. Middle Ear Infections Otitis Media. Reviewed by: William J. Parkes, IV, MD. Larger text size Large text size Regular text size.
What Are Middle Ear Infections? Ear pain is the main sign of a middle ear infection. Kids also might have: a fever trouble eating, drinking, or sleeping.
Chewing, sucking, and lying down can cause painful pressure changes in the middle ear. How Do Ear Infections Happen? Kids especially in the first 2 to 4 years of life get ear infections more than adults do for several reasons: Their shorter, more horizontal eustachian tubes let bacteria and viruses find their way into the middle ear more easily.
The tubes are also narrower, so more likely to get blocked. Their adenoids , gland-like structures at the back of the throat, are larger and can interfere with the opening of the eustachian tubes.
How Are Ear Infections Diagnosed? How Are Ear Infections Treated? To treat an ear infection, health care providers consider many things, including: the type and severity of the ear infection how often the child has ear infections how long this infection has lasted the child's age and any risk factors whether the infection affects hearing The type of otitis affects treatment options.
When they tested the presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria through nasopharyngeal back of the nose swabs, there was no decrease in the 5-day group as might have been expected with a shorter duration of antibiotics.
Also, reduced-duration antibiotics did not decrease the risk of frequent adverse events like diarrhea or diaper rash. When testing the risk of a recurrent infection, they found that it was higher when children were exposed to three or more children for 10 or more hours per week, such as in a daycare setting, or if the initial infection occurred in both ears as opposed to just one ear.
Importantly, the study also shows for the first time that almost one in two children in whom residual fluid was observed in the middle ear after treatment had a recurring infection, a significantly higher percentage when compared to children without any residual fluid in the middle ear.
The marked superiority of the day regimen over the 5-day regimen led the independent safety monitoring board overseeing the trial to conclude it prematurely as the primary end point was achieved.
Search for:. Science Health Culture Environment. Share this Article. You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4. Blockage results in middle ear fluid called viral otitis.
If the fluid becomes infected bacterial otitis , the fluid turns to pus. This causes the eardrum to bulge out and can cause a lot of pain. Ear infections peak at age 6 months to 2 years. They are a common problem until age 8.
The onset of ear infections is often on day 3 of a cold. How often do kids get ear infections? Ear infections are the most common bacterial infection of young children.
Bellevue Everett Federal Way Seattle. Should your child see a doctor?
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