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..
“... 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....