As a parent, we never want to see our kiddo in pain. We want to give them snuggles & hugs and just want them to feel better. If your kiddo is experiencing recurring ear infections, not only is it heartbreaking to see them hurting, but becomes frustrating when it leads to another missed day of daycare or work.
Helping kiddos clear out chronic ear infections is one of the things we get the best results with in our office. If you’re looking to help your child get off the cycle of antibiotics or are looking to avoid putting tubes in their ears, here are the two steps we’ve found to help.
STEP ONE:
We need to make sure your child’s ears can drain properly.
Yes, when they’re young their ears don’t drain as efficiently as an older child or an adult, but they are still designed to drain. Otherwise all infants and toddlers would be walking around with their ears constantly filled with fluid. (For more on if horizontal ear tubes are really why ear infections are more common in infants and toddlers read our blog here)
If their ears aren’t draining, any bug that is present (virus or bacteria) has a chance to stick around and to multiply. If the ears are draining, the bugs can be swept away…like washing your hands in the sink.
What then, causes ears to drain normally in a kiddo at any age? Ears drain when the mouth, jaw, and neck are moving properly. There are teeny, tiny muscles that attach to the Eustachian tube (your child’s ear tubes) that help it open and close.
When your child chews, swallows, yawns, and even moves their neck around, it not only activates these tiny muscles to open their tubes, it helps keep fluids moving and draining throughout their head, face, sinuses, and entire ear/nose/throat (ENT) system. Remember the last time your ears were plugged or you were on a plane? How did you open your jaw, move it around, and swallow to relieve the sensation? (Read more about what muscle is key for drainage in our blog here)
If your child’s neck is out of alignment it prevents this normal movement, which prevents normal drainage. It is like having a hairball in your bathtub drain. It is going to drain very slowly or not at all. However, when your child’s neck is lined up, it is like taking that hairball out and letting things drain easily.
At Whole Family Chiropractic we use our extremely gentle and extremely safe neurologically based adjustments to balance out any misalignments in your child’s neck. Many parents report seeing extra drainage within the first week, and sometimes even with the very first adjustment.
STEP TWO:
Once things are draining, support your child’s immune system in getting stronger.
The immune system is designed to learn every time it encounters a bug, so it can fight it off better the next time. If your kiddo is getting the same type of sickness over and over again, it is likely something is preventing their immune system from learning.
We want to make sure their body can learn how to become stronger from that sickness, so it fights things easier and more quickly the next time it is exposed.
To do this, we look at what controls and coordinates the immune system. This is the brain and nervous system. If there is stress on the nervous system, it cannot do its job effectively, which means it can’t help the immune system the way it should. We know that stress alone has a huge effect on the immune system, because when we’re under extra stress is when we’re more likely to get sick.
Our office specializes in looking for stresses in your child’s nervous system that are preventing them from adapting to their environment. These stresses are decreasing their resiliency and making it more likely they get sick.
Again, our safe and gentle neurologically based adjusting helps clear out stresses in your child’s nervous system. By restoring balance, we help your child build resiliency so they don’t have to get sick every time they’re around a bug.
To find out more about our gentle adjusting style, click here.
If you are wanting to help your child get off the endless cycle of antibiotics, and are tired of waiting to see when they’ll outgrow their chronic ear infections, please schedule an appointment. We’d love to see if our safe, gentle approach can help them get healthier.
Call 651-789-0033 or email feelawesome@healthyfamilymn.com.
Interested in understanding more? Check out this webinar:
Help to Break the Cycle of Recurring Ear Infections and Antibiotics