Hangzhou, March 3 (Xinhua) -- March 3 is the National Ear Care Day, and many clinical experts in the otolaryngology department of children's hospitals have suggested that the number of children with otitis media caused by colds in winter and spring has increased, and parents need to be vigilant to protect their children's ear health.
Many parents don't understand why colds can cause otitis media in children? Fu Yong, director of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology of the Children's Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, explained that the human ear is connected with the nasal cavity and oral cavity, and this channel is called the eustachian tube. The Eustachian tube opens at one end on the side of the nasopharynx behind the nasal cavity and the other end of the opening is in the middle ear cavity.
Compared with **, the eustachian tube in children is not fully developed, and is relatively shorter, wider, straighter, and flatter in connection with the pharynx. In this way, after the child's upper respiratory tract infection, retrograde infection is easy to occur, and the inflammation of the pharynx and nose spreads to the eustachian tube, and the bacteria or viruses in the nasopharynx can easily enter the tympanic cavity through the eustachian tube and infect the middle ear.
Experts said that in winter and spring, the temperature is changeable, hot and cold, and a variety of respiratory infectious diseases are highly incidentious, due to the weak resistance of children, they are susceptible to the invasion of viruses and bacteria, resulting in colds and fevers, and otitis media.
Fu Yong reminded that when children have systemic symptoms such as earache, tinnitus, hearing loss, fever, and lack of energy, parents should pay more attention, be alert to the occurrence of otitis media, seek medical attention in time, and beware of perforation of the eardrum caused by some severe acute otitis media.
In addition to colds, children have rhinitis, sinusitis and adenoid hypertrophy, swimming in unclean water, water in the ears when washing hair and bathing, and milk entering the middle ear caused by the baby lying down** can also lead to the occurrence of otitis media.
Many otolaryngology clinicians mentioned that most of the parents of children with otitis media who met in the clinic were very anxious. On the one hand, parents are afraid that their children's hearing loss will affect their future lives. On the other hand, the child cries incessantly due to ear pain, which makes the parents' anxiety and nervousness even more serious.
In this regard, experts said that otitis media is a common and frequent disease in pediatric outpatient clinics, and in most cases, acute otitis media is not considered an emergency department, and parents do not need to be overly nervous.
Most otitis media should be treated in a timely manner, and the doctor will examine the condition of the external ear canal and eardrum, and give sufficient antibiotics to fight the infection**, which can usually be cured in about a week. A small number of small perforations of the tympanic membrane caused by a small number of severe acute purulent otitis media can heal spontaneously within a period of time after infection control, and only a small number of poorly controlled infections may become chronic otitis media, and even affect the hearing of children. Fu Yong said.