Friday, March 5, 2010

Ear Infections: A Normal Part of Childhood?


We know a nine-year-old boy who just got his fourth set of ear tubes.  When I heard he was going in for his fourth surgical implantation of ear tubes, I was a bit shocked and amazed.  That is just a lot of surgeries, anesthesia, and ear tubes for a young boy!  And what it the reason for all of the ear tubes?  He has repeated ear infections that are pretty significant.

This got me thinking about the apparent ear infection epidemic among children.  Ear infections are always such a hot topic among moms of young children.  It seems that pretty much all kids are getting repeated ear infections and a good amount of children are getting surgical implantation of ear tubes.

So why is this happening?  Why so many ear infections?  Well, it is probably not what you would expect.  According to Richard Moskowitz, M.D., vaccinations are the cause of the great ear infection epidemic.  Vaccination causes mucosal immunity to be weak, often leading to ear infections in children.  Otitis Media (ear infection) is the buildup of water in the ear, which often requires tubes for drainage.  Amazingly, the particular strain of Otitis Media that is running rampant today was not known until the late 1940s and early 1950s.  And guess what big event happened in the 1940s?  That was when the massive vaccination programs began in the United States.   

And we've got more startling information about ear infections.  At least half of all American children have had Otitis Media by their first birthday.  More than 40% of kids get repeated ear infections by age 6.  Otitis Media accounts for 26 million visits to physicians each year.  About 1 million children have tubes implanted into their ears each year.

And, there is even more to the story.  Otitis Media is almost always treated with antibiotics.  Antibiotics lead to yeast and gastrointestinal dysbiosis.   And, what issues do almost all children with autism have?  Yes, that would be yeast and gastrointestinal dysbiosis.  So, there seems to be a definite antibiotic = autism connection.  That will be a topic for another day...

5 comments:

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  2. I have definitely heard of the link between Autism and ear infections. Jaylen had 6 in a row before he got tubes put in. Then was diagnosed ASD about 6 months later.

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  3. BTW, you redid your layout huh? It looks fabulous!!!

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  4. Thanks, MTTB :) I'm a newbie and trying to improve day by day here. You have a beautiful blog! I love the family picture and the boys' picture :)

    It stinks about the ear infections :( How about your baby? Vaxed? Ear infections?
    My baby is non-vaxed and has had no ear infections. My older boys did have ear infections.

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  5. Very interesting post! My daughter went on a course of antibiotics less than a week after her MMR vaccine for a bacterial infection/cold. Within three weeks she was a different child - despondent, detached. I relive that time period in my brain every day and would do anything to change it.

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