Chiropractic and Ear Infections

I have 3 blogs, this one, one dedicated to FIF, and lastly my chiropractic blog. While I love them all, I take special pride in my chiropractic blog. As chiropractic has changed my life it brings a little joy to see all the visits from around the world on my chiropractic blog. The number one topic that gets hit is chiropractic and ear infections. I have had other authors link to my blog specifically for these articles. The articles weren't written by me, but are more easily accessible on my blog.

Yesterday when I arrived at the YMCA for Annika's music class I joined in a conversation that two mothers were having about their childrens recurrent ear infections. I mentioned they should see a chiropractor, to which I received a look of whatever crazy. As the conversation progressed it moved to the need for tubes. I took this as another opportunity to mention chiropractic, but with a more personal story to share. I have a friend who's daughter had entered the evil ear infection antibiotic cycle and the doctor had mentioned that the next step would be tubes in the ears. Wanting to avoid this at all cost she finally called me and asked for my chiropractors number. Her daughter went in for one visit, one, just one visit, the ear infection cleared up and has yet to return. Major surgery avoided for a $7.00 visit to the chiropractor. The women were suprised, and wanted to know how a "back" doctor could help with ear infections. I gave them a really quick explanation and one women asked if I had the chiropractors card. I also shared that my 17 month old hadn't had a single ear infection and that he had been adjusted at 6 hours old. She wanted to know why it would be necassary to adjust such a small baby. Think of the first thing that happens as soon as the babies head is out of the birth canal, your doctor pulls on it to help get the rest of the baby out. He may not pull hard enough to pull your babies head off (let's hope) but it doesn't take much to move those fragile bones out of alignment. Here is one of the articles from my other blog that explains how chiropractic works with ear infections, and it's not from some secret chiropractic journal it is from Ladies Home Journal.

"Chiropractic Helps in Prevention of Recurring Ear Infections.
In the October 1998 issue of the Ladies Home Journal appeared an article entitled, "Chiropractic Adjustments for Chronic Ear Infections." This article reviewed several studies showing the effectiveness of chiropractic care for preventing re-occurring ear infections known as Otitis Media or OM.

According to the article, reoccurring ear infections account for over 35% of all pediatrician visits in the United States. Sometimes these infections are due to bacteria and sometimes these are due to a virus. The most common medical care for this situation has been antibiotics, even though antibiotics have no effect on viruses. While the article mentions that the antibiotic may be effective in an acute bacterial infection, they do nothing to stop repeat infections. Research and statistics is now showing that repeated use of antibiotics is contributing to future infections by creating drug-resistant infections. The surgical approach has met with little long term results as the "tubes" placed in children’s ears often come out and usually require a child to be put under general anesthesia to do the surgery.

The article in the Ladies Home Journal states, "Chiropractic care is thought to prevent recurrent infections by correcting misalignments (called subluxations) and allowing normal fluid drainage from the middle ear." What the article took special note of was that 6 months after the chiropractic care was given to the children in the study, 80 percent had not suffered a recurrence of ear infections.

In closing the article did make a profound statement. They made a recommendation to parents on this subject. "If your child is between ear infections and his doctor suggests ear-tube surgery, ask if you can try chiropractic treatment first." While we agree with that sentiment, we suggest you not wait for a period between episodes, and you don’t have to "ask" permission from any other doctor to seek chiropractic care. As the sneaker company said, "just do it!"

Don't wait around for Danny to make it back to Utah, you can come and see him when he gets there. Help your kids be ear infection free take them to a chiropractor today! Article on the Web