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Trend reversal: Big drop in kids' ear infections
Washington Post ^ | March 4, 2011 | MIKE STOBBE

Posted on 03/07/2011 8:14:54 PM PST by neverdem

The Associated Press

ATLANTA -- Ear infections, a scourge that has left countless tots screaming through the night, have fallen dramatically, and some researchers suggest a decline in smoking by parents might be part of the reason.

Health officials report nearly a 30 percent drop over 15 years in young children's doctor visits for ear infections. That's half a million fewer trips to the doctor on average.

Why the numbers are declining is a bit of a mystery, but Harvard researchers think it's partly because fewer people smoke, meaning less irritation of children's airways. Many doctors credit growing use of a vaccine against bacteria that cause ear infections. And some think increased breast-feeding is protecting more children...

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Testing
KEYWORDS: aom; health; medicine; smoking
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Smoke-free households with children and decreasing rates of paediatric clinical encounters for otitis media in the United States
1 posted on 03/07/2011 8:15:00 PM PST by neverdem
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To: neverdem

How about an item in the Washing Compost about the infection of kid’s minds with liberalism, i.e., brainwashing?


2 posted on 03/07/2011 8:20:19 PM PST by Rembrandt (.. AND the donkey you rode in on.)
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To: neverdem

Earache? Earache my eye.


3 posted on 03/07/2011 8:21:16 PM PST by ElkGroveDan (If every person were like Sarah Palin, this world would be a peaceful, beautiful world to live in.)
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To: neverdem

Hope this is a joke. My kid’s ear infections were “cured” with an adenoidectomy
Nobody was smoking.

But the lunatics at the PDA were trying to outlaw them at the time.

Anybody who believes this caca deserves what they get.

Politically correct new age bullshit.


4 posted on 03/07/2011 8:22:11 PM PST by acapesket
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To: Rembrandt

You mean how libs kids have their heads up their you know whats and being little useful idiots? Never happen.


5 posted on 03/07/2011 8:23:00 PM PST by unkus
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To: acapesket

My little year old grandson just had eustachian tubes put in due to numerous ear infections and his parents don’t smoke either. PC BS is right.


6 posted on 03/07/2011 8:26:52 PM PST by unkus
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To: neverdem

Could this have anything to do with the drive NOT to use antibiotics for headcolds? Maybe there’s more resistance?


7 posted on 03/07/2011 8:27:27 PM PST by jaybee
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To: neverdem

hogwash. I do not believe that smoking has any corrolation with ear infection frequency in infants. My brother smokes and I do not, never have. My son has been exposed to very little, if any, second hand smoke. My son was breast fed, my brother’s son was not. Both our sons have had chronic ear infections in infancy. Both had to have tubes/adenoidectomy before age three (my son had to have them when he was less than 18 months old). My kiddo is 12, his was 2 last month.

I think I just gave an indication that ear inection frequency may have a root in genetics.

Oh yeah, I had chronic ear infections too. I had tubes and adenoids removed when I was three, and my brother had it done when he was 4.


8 posted on 03/07/2011 8:30:28 PM PST by Peanut Gallery
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To: Peanut Gallery

I smoked when my son was young and he never had an ear infection.

I guess he was just lucky


9 posted on 03/07/2011 8:48:23 PM PST by CaptainK (...please make it stop. Shake a can of pennies at it.)
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To: neverdem

Considering the local doctors had proclaimed our granddaughter free of any ear infection just a couple hours before her ear drums blew out (yep, an infection by golly!), what’s the chance this is because fewer doctors are capable of diagnosing one?


10 posted on 03/07/2011 8:55:52 PM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: neverdem

My uncles smoked like chimneys when I was a kid. It made my eyes water and annoyed me but I never had an ear ache.

It wasn’t until decades later listening to bogus studies and liberal media that my ears started to hurt. Liberalism causes earaches.


11 posted on 03/07/2011 8:58:35 PM PST by Eric Blair 2084 (Beware of the Socialist Government-Academia Grant Junkie-Rich "non-profit"-Liberal Media Complex)
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To: Rembrandt

The last ear infection I had was in 2003. I remember it well because I was watching the Columbia shuttle disaster unfold on TV while nursing that infection.

Happened because I had been reading old magazines in a flea market and stuck my finger in my ear. One of the stupidest things I ever did.


12 posted on 03/07/2011 9:02:26 PM PST by Strk321
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To: neverdem
my mother smoked incessantly and my dad did too for a while..I can't remember ever having an ear infection nor any of my brothers or sister...

I nursed all my kids and the kid I nursed the least was the healthiest so go figure.....

13 posted on 03/07/2011 9:16:09 PM PST by cherry
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To: neverdem

Before blaming it on smoking..how about crediting the increased use of sippy cups.

Used to be parent left kids on the bottle for way too long.. Tykes lay on their back and suck. Short level eustacian tubes lead to pooling.

Have to be upright to use a sippy cup..


14 posted on 03/07/2011 9:19:48 PM PST by TASMANIANRED (We kneel to no prince but the Prince of Peace)
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To: Smokin' Joe
Considering the local doctors had proclaimed our granddaughter free of any ear infection just a couple hours before her ear drums blew out (yep, an infection by golly!), what’s the chance this is because fewer doctors are capable of diagnosing one?

You look at the ear drum with an otoscope. It has a characteristic appearance. Normal looks like a pearl described as a "anterior cone of light." If it looks odd, and the kid has symptoms, any doc should be able to make the diagnosis.

15 posted on 03/07/2011 9:21:12 PM PST by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
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To: unkus
> My little year old grandson just had eustachian tubes put in ...

You mean a Tympanostomy tube.

The eustachian tubes are a part of the body, that connect the middle ear chamber to the pharynx.

16 posted on 03/07/2011 9:21:12 PM PST by dayglored (Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!)
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To: neverdem
If it looks odd, and the kid has symptoms, any doc should be able to make the diagnosis

Agreed. Grandma had the doc 2 to 0, even without an otoscope.

17 posted on 03/07/2011 9:31:45 PM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: dayglored

You mean a Tympanostomy tube.

The eustachian tubes are a part of the body, that connect the middle ear chamber to the pharynx.


Thank you. I didn’t hear my daughter clearly when she said little Brady was having the proceedure done. Our kids never had many ear infections so this was the first I’d really heard about that particular proceedure.


18 posted on 03/07/2011 9:37:36 PM PST by unkus
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To: unkus
It's a great thing, in my opinion. My daughter underwent the procedure at around age 5 and it improved her health and general attitude (she was significantly less irritable, since her head felt better). By the time the tubes fell out of their own accord (the usual way they come out), she was in fine shape.

I hope that Brady has a similar good experience with them.

19 posted on 03/07/2011 9:58:47 PM PST by dayglored (Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!)
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To: dayglored

So glad about your daughter. Thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful words regarding Brady.


20 posted on 03/07/2011 10:11:23 PM PST by unkus
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