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Children's
Ear Infections Soar Despite Medical 'Treatment'
Health
Watch, May 1997
Review
Between 1981 and 1988 there
was a 44% increase in the number of preschooler ear infection
cases in the United States. In 1988 the figure had reached 5.9
million, and by 1990 ear infections were the diagnosis arrived at
by medical doctors the second most frequently. Potentially
resulting in hearing loss, many believe that the medical community
needs a new approach to treatment for ear infections. The Ladies
Home Journal expresses this view: "'A child's ear
infection offers a classic example of how over-treatment with
antibiotics can lead to the development of drug-resistant strains
of bacteria. For years, amoxicillin - a penicillin-like antibiotic
- was the standard treatment for acute otitis media. However,
these infections usually clear, without treatment, in two or three
days...Because amoxicillin has been so over prescribed, some ear
infections that in the past might have responded to it no longer
do. As a result, doctors are forced to prescribe one after another
of stronger - and more expensive - medications. Furthermore, the
stronger antibiotics are the broad-spectrum ones, which kill the
so-called good bacteria as as well as the bad, making children
vulnerable to secondary infections.'"
Dr. Lehnert concluded form
his study on the role of antibiotic therapy in cases of Otitis
Media that antibiotics really only need to be administered in 5 to
10 percent of cases. Another available and overly popular
treatment is the insertion of tympanotomy tubes into the ear.
Though this procedure was used over 670,000 times in 1988, there
is evidence that 25% of them should not have been performed,
especially not when you consider the hearing loss and permanent
scarring that may result from the procedure (which has not been
found more effective than medicine or other therapy).
So what are parents doing in
light of all this? They are focusing on Natural Health Care, on
behavior modification, and on diet to help their children use
their own bodies and body resources to stay well.
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