A small tube connects your ear to your throat. A cold can cause this tube to swell. When the tube swells enough to become blocked, it can trap fluid inside your ear. This makes it a perfect place for germs to grow and cause ear ache. Ear aches happen mostly to young children because their tubes are smaller and get blocked more easily.
Symptoms
The main symptom is an earache. It can be mild, or it can hurt a lot. Babies and young children may be fussy. They may pull at their ears and cry. They may have trouble sleeping. They may also have a fever.
You may see thick, yellow fluid coming from their ears. This happens when the infection has caused the eardrum to burst and the fluid flows out.
Cure
Usually, ear aches are cured naturally and go away on their own. You can treat your child at home with an over-the-counter pain reliever like acetaminophen (such as Tylenol or Tempra), a warm washcloth or heating pad on the ear, and rest. Your doctor may give you eardrops that can help your child's pain. Your doctor can give your child antibiotics, but ear infections often get better without them. Talk about this with your doctor.
Earaches in children are very common for a few reasons like allergies a common cold or from other infections. Once a certain type of bacteria or virus infects the lining of the Eustachian tube of your child’s ear, it becomes swollen and filled with thick mucus. Due to this, the fluid inside the ear is not drained normally and bacteria find the opportunity to grow in this fluid. This then increases the pressure behind the eardrum that eventually causes pain.
There are acute infections that can clear up in one to two weeks but there are ear infections that ca last longer and later on becoming chronic. In several instances, the fluid stays inside the middle ear – leading to more serious infections and even to hearing loss.
Fever and earaches in children are the most common symptoms of acute ear infections. For babies and toddlers who can tell you directly where the pain is, you’ll find them crying and pulling/tugging their ears. They may also become listless and irritable or they may have trouble hearing you.
For ear infections and earaches in children, you need to first see a specialist for proper diagnosis of the condition. If the doctor says the infection is from bacteria, antibiotics will be prescribed. They may also prescribe pain relievers like ibuprofen, acetaminophen and the like. Eardrops may also be an option.
The reason earaches in children are common is because their Eustachian tubes are much shorter and narrower as compared to adults. Studies also show that kids are more prone to ear infections if there is a family history of the condition, if they’re around people that smoke, if they’ve experienced previous ear infections, if they take a bottle in bed and if they use a pacifier. Other reasons include frequent colds, they were born with low birth weight or are premature and they’ve allergies along with nasal congestion.
