Educational Corner: Responsible Treatment for Earaches

This is a continuation of the first post, Earaches, infections, and pain. The source of the information discussed is from the amazing book, How To Raise a Healthy Child...in Spite of Your Doctor. One thing I have to ask as a parent is, why is it that something as simple and common as a fever, a headache, an earache, a stomachache, or a cough or nose drainage is seen as a mini-emergency when it comes to children? Adults rarely run to the doctor for every little tiny inconvenience they feel in their body, but we are somehow subconsciously trained and shamed into doing what is "best" for our children by always "making sure" they are okay, and the only acceptable way to do this is by employing a doctor's help and advice, even if it goes against what we feel comfortable accepting by way of medication and other treatments. This book goes over all of those aforementioned discomforts and dissects many common causes and the common treatments given by pediatricians, and then discusses alternatives to those traditional treatments and, as the subtitle suggests, "puts parents back in control of their children's health."

The following five points discuss common treatments and their alternatives:

1. Dr. Mendlesohn opposes the traditional treatments of antibiotics, antihistamines, decongestants, and especially tympanostomies (puncturing the eardrum to insert plastic tubes to assist in drainage). The way ear infections are diagnosed is by shining a light into the ear canal through an otoscope and observing the state of the eardrum, and most particularly it's shade. As the eardrum is normally pearly white, a state of violent redness is considered to be a middle ear infection, and any other shades of pink or red besides dark beet red will be considered a mild middle ear infection. The otoscope can't see on the other side of the ear drum to concur if there is actual infection present beyond the middle ear. A doctor will usually treat both the mild and severe "infections" the same way, by prescribing Amoxicillin.
2. Prescribing antibiotics for infections (which cannot be proved simply based on the shade of the eardrum, since a fever, allergic reaction, or upset crying could cause a color change of the drum) does nothing to change the outcome of the infection in regards to hearing loss, mastoiditis, or spread of said infection. The "positives" of the antibiotics are that the duration and pain of the infection is shortened, and the negative is that the body's immune system is hampered by interference. The only time antibiotics should maybe be used is if the doctor can see pus draining from the ear (reported as being in less than 1% of children at the time this book was written), and as Dr. Mendelsohn says: "I'm not convinced that it can be justified even then."
3. Oral decongestants and antihistamines prescribed for years by doctors by the trade names of Actifed and Sudafed and many others with the same chemical formulas are given to numerous children with common colds and ear infections. The FDA demanded that the manufacturers prove the effectiveness of the drugs or remove them from the market, yet they were still commonly prescribed. In 1983, after a three-year study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh, the drugs were found to be ineffective to healing children with ear infections, and the 500 children involved in the study both recovered at the same rate, those who had taken the meds and those who had been given a placebo. 
4. To heal ear pain while the body takes it's natural course, wait until the pain persists for 48 hours before calling the doctor; in the meantime, relieve the pain with a heating pad, a couple drops of warm (not hot) olive oil, and the appropriate dosage of acetaminophen (Tylenol). Only use the drug if the pain becomes unbearable. Do NOT use aspirin because of the potential side effects. It has caused death in children. I have personally heard of nursing mothers using a few drops of breastmilk in the child's ear. I believe breastmilk is a great healing liquid, but have not tested this for myself nor researched to see if this could scientifically be true. If you need to go to the doctor, question the use of antibiotics, and do not allow him to use a foreign object to clear wax from the ear. Go to rule out the possibility of a foreign body or ear trauma. 
5. If your child has recurrent and frequent ear infections, it could be related to the antibiotics given before or from allergies. A tympanostomy is not recommended because it can cause proven damage and there is no scientific evidence it will do any good. 

Hopefully this review will assure you the next time your child wakes up in the middle of the night in pain from an earache. Knowing the possible causes of ear pain and the best treatments is very helpful so that you will not sacrifice your health beliefs and integrity to erase your child's pain at any cost. Knowing the dangers and side effects and overall effectiveness of the treatments is more important than allowing procedures that cost time and money and could potentially be harmful in the end.

Source: Mendelsohn, Robert S. How to Raise a Healthy Child...in Spite of Your Doctor.  The Ballantine Publishing Group, 1984. Pp. 146-152. www.ballantinebooks.com

Happy Healing,

Monica P.