Ear Infections and Chiropractic Care

Ear infections are due to a bacterial infection in the ear and chiropractic care does not remove, treat nor affect bacteria present in the ear. Have your child seen at your Ped. and treat the infection with antibiotics. Leaving your baby or child to suffer through the infection's pain could lead to hearing loss, ear canal rupture and severe bleeding.

This is my 1st post here, but that said we did this with our son when he had colic, and it did wonders for him. He is now 10 months old and has had 8 ear infections, we started taking him to a Chiropractor when we find he has one...It was a huge Change in him. The Chiropractor told me to bring him in when he does have a ear infection, but we have been taking him in even if he doesn't have a ear infection...just trying to keep him healthy. He does get tubes in his years 1st part of May.

Good Luck to you

My son's been going to a chiropractor since he was 2 weeks old. He's only had three ear infections and he's now 2 and a half. I've taken him in for adjustments after he was diagnosed, but I also gave him his prescribed medicine. Hope this helps!

Hi L.. I am M. W. and my husband and I have 2 beautiful girls, ages 4 and 2 1/2. When our oldest one was about a year she kept getting ear infections all the time, they gave her antibiotics, and after 9 days of taking penicilin we found out that she was allergic to the medicine, then had to give her another medicine to get rid of the hives, but her ear infections would still come, so about when she was 18 months old, we had to go to the ear dr, and he had to put tubes in her ear. What it does it helps drain the fluid in the ear, because it was staying in there, like behind the middle part of the eardrum. It also helps keep the wax buildup . The tubes are really quite small, but they do fall out eventually. But I am not sure if her ears are bothering her now or not, bc she likes to put her fingers in her ears, but I dont think its too loud for her. I hope that I was able to help.

M. W.

My daughter who is now 16 started receiving chiropractic care when she was 2 years old for chronic ear infections. Initially she needed 2 or 3 adjustments to allow her body to clear up the ear infection. She acquired one more ear infection after that and again required 2 or 3 consecutive adjustments in order to allow her body to heal. Since that time, she has received regular chiropractic care and has been ear infection free all of these years. My youngest daughter who is now 8 started receiving chiropractic care when she was 3 days old as a maintenance treatment. Our family chiropractic experience has been a definite positive!!

L., My doctor recommends eliminating dairy and limiting sugar. I've been very attentive to diet since my son had his first and only ear infection. He was 3 at the time. It's worked for us. We also go regularly to the Chiropractor.
Good Luck.

my friend's daughter had recurrent ear infections. she did get chiro. adjustments, but not a lot. She saw a homeopathic dr. in naperville (we also see her for my son's eczema and reactive airway disease) and her ear infections have only recurred 2x in a yr and 1/2 since being treated homeopathically. She takes a remedy and doesn't need to have antibiotics. here's the dr.'s website (www.dupagehomeopathic.com) and here's a newsletter the dr. wrote about chronic ear infections and treating them homeopathically.
http://dupagehomeopathic.com/newsletters/ear_infections.pdf

I just took care of a 38 year old patient where I work with strokes on both sides of his brain that happened after the chiropractor manipulated his neck. Lower back is okay for manipulations, but the neurologist said this was not her first case this year from neck manipulations. Be careful. I go to a chiropractor but only for lower back myself.

Although i do take my kids to the chiropractor regularly, this unfortunately does not help w/my daughter's ear infections.

L.,
I have begun to treat my daughters 5 double ear infectons in the last 4 months with diet change. It seems as though she may have some allergies to milk and wheat. She has been off both for about 3 weeks and went to the ENT and there is no fluid. Just another thought.

My friend takes her children (5 1/2 and 3 1/2) to a chiropractor on a regular basis to help with some chronic health issues. But she told me of an ear infection that brought her to the pediatrician who wanted to put her son on antibiotics for an "impressive infection". She later got him to the chiropractor who managed to have his fever gone within a few hours and the ear infection gone by the next day. No antibiotics.

Dear L.,
I have 2 children who had frequent ear infections as children as small children growing up. The are now 8 years, & 14 years old. We did not use a chiropractor but found some other very successful techniques. Ear infections does affect their auditory processing & academic progress. There's a test for Auditory processing disorders to see if child has CAPD(central auditory processing disorder) a condition that can be corrected & helped. The earlier the better. This cannot be done by a chiropractor though. I have a few contacts if you are interested. You can e-mail me at ____@____.com. I live in the South Suburbs of Chicago,IL

Although my 13 month old son sees a chiropractor/homeopathic doctor for food allergies and not ear infections, I thought I'd respond because I am very happy with him. His name is Tom Bayne and his office is in Glenview. I'm sure you could either call him or e-mail him with questions and he will give you the answers you are looking for. His phone number is ###-###-####. I don't know his e-mail address off hand, but if you google his name or PureBalance in Glenview, you should be able to get it.

L.,
My chiropractor adjusted my then 17 month-old son (now 11, but his ear infections were so severe, this was uneffective. She referred me to a homeopathic physician who is also an MD. He did a very complete history of my son and prescribed a homeopathic remedy, specifically for him. It took a long time to heal completely, but allowed us to avoid ear tubes (UGh!) To this day, my son relies on this remedy for gentle, effective relief of cold symptoms and uses it to build immunity when necessary. We also use homeopathic products like earache and Ear (by Nova, sold on-line). By all means use chiropractic care and homeopathy if you can.

K.
M.S. Health Educator
Journalist

I know you have already gotten a ton of responses, and I just read through about 10 of them..anyway-everyone seems to have an opinion of chiropractic care-those who have never gone have bad things to say, but those who do receive care speak volumes. All 4 of my children go to the chiro...the 2 oldest(6y/o twins) were supposed to have tubes put in and had severe allergies-the chiro care eliminated the need for tubes, no more allergy medicine and no ear infections in 4 years(no kidding). The youngest two(ages 2 and 1)have NEVER been on antibiotics. I am sure your chiro will explain to you, but what happens when your spine is out of line is that your fluid can not drain properly and this causes a lot of the build up. One more thing-as far as chiro care being "dangerous" the technology now is unbelievable. My chiro uses a computerized machine that tells him what vertebrae are out of line and then the computer adjusts it...you can see the before and after on the screen and this eliminates any unneeded adjusting. My kids and myself have been adjusted both ways and they both work the same-just an option if you are worried about the safety of your child. Plus, I think accidents are few and far between. Sorry this is so long-good luck!!! I am sure you will be extremely happy w/your chiro care.

My daughter developed her only ear infection when she was about 18 months old. It was diagnosed by a nurse at a walk-in clinic who told us it was serious and that she needed antibiotics, and that we should simultaneously (but on an alternating schedule) give her Tylenol and Motrin to deal with the pain. I went to Walgreens, dropped off the prescription, bought her some Tylenol and Motrin, gave her some Tylenol, and then phoned our chiropractor while waiting for the prescription to be ready. He said, "Don't give her antibiotics. Most ear infections are viral so antibiotics won't do any good. Do give her some Tylenol or Motrin for pain right away. Then go to the health food store and get a homeopathic called Earache, and also get her some Nettles tincture. That should clear it up." I bought the antibiotics anyway just in case...then dashed over to the HFS and got her the Earache homeopathic. They didn't have Nettles (which I have since found elsewhere and can attest is very, very good for congestion and mixes well with juice). However, I gave her just the Earache medicine and her fever and pain were gone within hours. I kept her on it for a few days just in case. But she was almost totally recovered (no fever or pain) within three hours, and was totally symptom-free (no congestion) within two days. I was amazed. Bear in mind this was supposed to be, according to the clinic nurse, a very bad infection. We threw away the antibiotics without ever giving it to her. When the nurse called to follow up, I explained what happened. She said, "Yes, we know that 80% of ear infections will clear up on their own, so that doesn't surprise me." Well, what did she prescribe the antibiotic for then?!! We now consider (not just because of this experience, but because of countless experiences like it) our chiropractor to be our children's primary care provider (and our insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield, is fine with that).

Hope this helps!

B.

I work for a chiropractor and can tell you from personal experience that chiropractic can help both kids and adults with all types of ailments. Kids usually respond well and quickly to chiro care. My now 4 year old had tubes for ear infections, before I knew about chiropractic care, she now has problems with her hearing, and may need to undergo a surgery to correct the problem, caused by the tubes. Had I known about chiropractic before she got the tubes (at 9 months old) I would have tried it first.

my 1st childs has only had 2 ear infections when teething, breast feeding has helped and prevented. make sure no one is smoking in your home, drinking a bottle in bed ,or while laying down will also cause ear infections,.i have had all 3 of my children adjusted while infants i think it helps them stay healthy.oldest is 4 only had 2 antibiotic . middle is 2 only one and yougest 1 never.natural is better. but if children have symptoms of rashes and really high fevers and lethargic i always take to doctor right away and i have even taken too emergancy room.i also feed my kids organic yogurt.

Well, I think you know my .02 on your little lady's situation!

Thinking of you guys & xoxo.

Hi L.,
I have taken all my kids to a chiro, for everything from constipation to colds. Usually if it's a bad ear infection they have to go three times that first week and it's always been gone after that. I do still take them to the ped and I have been told that 80% or so of ear infections start out viral so getting them to drain is important. I go to Borre Chiropratic in Warrenville.
W.