How can I determine if a child’s ear hurts? Even children over two years of age cannot always characterize the nature of the pain. What can we say about babies! Knowing the symptoms of otitis media in a child, the disease can be "caught" at the onset phase.
If ear hurts
With pain in the ears, the child becomes moody, restless. Refuses to go to bed, sometimes tugging on the ear. The shell or region around the ear canal is different from the color of the skin of the cheek, it looks inflamed. If on the tragus - a knot located opposite the entrance to the ear - gently press, the baby frowns or whimpers. All this indicates the symptoms of otitis media in a child.
What is otitis media
Otitis is an inflammatory disease of the hearing organ. May take the form:
- external - inflammation develops in the ear canal;
- in the middle ear, behind the eardrum;
- internal - the disease affects the organs directly responsible for the hearing: the cochlea and the labyrinth in which it is located.
The disease develops very quickly, passing from the subacute stage to the acute one. Otitis is dangerous by the development of complications, from paresis of the facial nerve to hearing loss and meningitis and encephalitis. It occurs not only with colds or seasonal diseases - with any penetration of the infection into the ear canal or into the Eustachian tube, during caries, stomatitis, furunculosis.
With a runny nose and viral diseases, if a nose is blocked, otitis media in an infant flashes up instantly. Symptoms of the disease are the same as in any other case. This is explained by the fact that in infants the Eustachian tube is located horizontally and wider, and with a runny nose the mucus easily flows into it.
Otitis media detected - parental actions
If symptoms of otitis media are detected in a child, then it is necessary to consult a doctor. But it’s impossible to do it instantly! You can alleviate the condition of the baby by cleansing his nose and dripping it with vasoconstrictive drops. It is advisable to raise the breast to reduce stress in the eardrum. The pain syndrome decreases if you attach a folded bike diaper to your ear or put a cotton wool in the ear canal so that the ear warms up with its heat. No vodka compresses or attempts to fit into the ear canal with a cotton swab should be allowed! The infection can be brought deeper, and the catarrhal form of the disease will turn into purulent otitis media.
In a child, the symptoms of this disease can be seen by the outflow of pus from the abalone. This happens when the eardrum is torn.
If this happens, the pain subsides. But this does not mean that a doctor’s consultation is no longer needed. Only an otolaryngologist should prescribe drugs depending on the pathogen or the cause of the disease.
Possible complications and precautions
Otitis media is usually treated within 2 weeks and requires antibiotics. If you self-medicate and use products from the arsenal of traditional medicine without consulting a doctor, the infection can penetrate the orbit or the meninges.
With purulent otitis media, pus is constantly required to be removed from the ear canal with cotton turunds, with catarrhal heating may be prescribed.
Together with the treatment of otitis media, it is necessary to deal with the elimination of the cause that caused it. If this is a catarrhal infection, gargle the baby's throat, if inflammatory diseases of the oral cavity, treat the mucous membrane with the prescribed drugs.
When treating otitis media, it is necessary to ensure that the child does not have a stuffy nose, and that additional pressure is not created on the eardrum.
Similar symptoms of otitis media in a child of any age and purpose are approximately the same. Only the doses of drugs differ.
If in the treatment of otitis media in infants and young children, parents are faced with such difficulty as to prevent the mucus from flowing into the child’s ear - the babies are more lying, then the problem is with teenagers. To explain to an “almost adult” creature that no washing of the head until the disease is over is sometimes more difficult than putting an otitis patient to bed.