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 ...
I think there is NO correlation between smoking and ear infections. I suspect that more young moms are staying home with their kids. Daycare is a cesspool of ear infections.
He was in a twice a week, morning pre-school, at the time, and it's more likely that the germ soup he was in brought them on. After he turned four, he didn't get any more, so I guess his resistance had built up sufficiently.
I smoked when my kids were little, my oldest had one regular ear infection and one bout with swimmer’s ear, my youngest son never had one. I never had an ear infection until I was an adult and only once.
Anthropomorphic global Warming causes drop in ear
infections, george bush’s fault.
Couldn’t be H Flu Vaccine...
When I was a kid, a family in which both parents were heavy smokers had kids that were continually having ear infections. One of the kids had some major hearing loss.
My anecdote does not prove smoking causes ear infections.
Anecdotes are not science.
Our ENT guy said they still put stents in the Eustachian tube for infants. Perhaps “unkus” meant a stent?
“... how about crediting the increased use of sippy cups”.
You know, I never thought about that. My son was 10 months when he literally threw his bottle at me and said “dippy up”. My daughter was 12 months. My youngest daughter was a bit older simply because she was undernourished (adopted from China). She was the only one to ever get an ear infection at 14 months. We stopped the bottle and went to a sippy cup and no more ear infections. I think you may have something here....
FWIW, my son has an ear infection right now. Last night he was in a lot of pain. He doesn’t complain much, just gets real ansty. Hardest thing in the world is to see my kids in pain, and not be able to take it away. He said he was feeling better this morning. Here’s to hoping that the antibiotics will kick in or the virus has run its course.
Smoke free house BTW, except for the occasional puff of wood smoke in the winter.
FWIW, I had TERRIBLE ear infections as a kid (not to the point of needing tubes put in), and I suspect that was at least in part, why I am "mostly deaf" these days.
IMO, my problems were almost absolutely due to swimming, as the infections always started with the "swimming season", and I was a regular "water rat".
Neither of my parents smoked. And another interesting tidbit....the ear infections stopped once I was entered puberty, though I was swimming just as much, if not more, so body chemistry must have had something to do with.
And I think "iatrogenics" probably played a role in my loss of hearing. I was regularly given an antibiotic called "aureomycin", which was supposedly more effective on ear infections than others. But a lot of years back, I recall scanning an article that said the aureomycin itself could cause hearing loss.
Hmmm, the Eustachian tubes in infants are prone to trouble more than in adults, so that's a possibility also. I'm just a lay person so my comment shouldn't supercede that of a specialist. :)
Yes, thank you.
Why consider physics when you can blame smoking.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.