Taking Out Adenoids Does NOT Help Ear Infections--Imagine That!!

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http://mercola.com/2004/mar/10/adenoids.htm

 

 

Taking Out Adenoids Does NOT Help Ear Infections--Imagine That!!

 

 

 

Conclusions from a study showed that removal of the adenoids, often associated

with swollen tonsils, as the first surgical treatment with children the ages of

10 to 24 months with recurrent middle ear infections, was not effective in

preventing further episodes.

 

 

Approximately one-third of all children suffer from recurrent ear infections. A

study by the Oulu University Hospital in Finland was done to determine how

effective removing adenoids were in treating these frequent ear infections.

Participants of the study included 180 children, aged 10 months to 2 years, with

recurrent acute otitis media. The goals of the study were to reduce pain, fever,

parental anxiety and doctor’s visits.

 

 

 

However, researchers concluded that, although the surgery slightly diminished

the risk of recurring middle ear infections, the beneficial effect, if any, was

so small that they did not recommend it as a primary treatment among this age

group.

 

 

 

British Medical Journal February 28, 2004; 328:487 (Free Full-Text Article)

 

 

Dr. Mercola's Comment:

It is not shocking that surgically removing a child's adenoids does not at all

help to reduce middle ear infections. The real surprise is that physicians have

clung on so long to the surgical model to treat this common infection of

childhood. Over one-third of children wind up with these infections so this is

not a small issue.

 

The tragedy is that this is one of the easiest problems in medicine to treat.

All it requires is an understanding of basic nutritional medicine. The key is to

remove the child from all pasteurized dairy. Raw dairy products are usually well

tolerated. Removal of sugars and grains that easily convert to sugars, such as

wheat, is also typically required.

 

Adding cod liver oil usually dramatically improves the immune response and

including fermented foods also increases the beneficial bacteria in the gut to

fight infections. There are only a small handful of cases of many thousands of

these infections that I treated over the past 20 years that haven't responded to

these simple measures.

 

For acute ear infections adding some fresh breast milk into the ear canal is

typically a very effective method to bring quick relief to the problem.

 

Although the breast milk works better, if you don’t have access to any another

option would be to crush a fresh clove of garlic, dissolve it in olive oil then

put a few drops of this solution into the ear canal.

 

If your child is very young he or she may not be able to tell you that their ear

is hurting. In these cases here are six signs that your child may have an ear

infection:

 

They pull on their ear

Their ear hurts

There is drainage from the ear

A fever is present (could mean an infection)

They are irritable or sleeping poorly

 

 

Related Articles:

 

Secrets for Treating and Preventing Ear Infections

 

Most Ear Infections Clear Up Without Antibiotics

 

'Good' Bacteria Prevent Repeat Ear Infections

 

Pacifiers May Contribute to Ear Infections, Tooth Decay, and Thrush

 

Finally, Fewer Antibiotics for Children

 

Two Out of Three Babies Receive Antibiotics by First Birthday

 

 

 

 

 

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