Sick of your baby's ear infections?
Try removing the pacifier
If you've been running back and forth to the pediatrician's office because of
your baby's ear infections, you may find some relief in a new study that just
found an association between pacifier use and acute middle ear infections,
reports the Academy of General Dentistry, an organization of general dentists
dedicated to continuing education.
Investigators studied 200 children who were 12 months of age or younger. They
found that 36 percent of the pacifier users had ear infections, compared with 23
percent of the non-pacifier users.
Otitis media, the scientific term for acute middle ear infections, often
develops when viruses from an infection of the nose and throat travel along the
eustachian, or auditory, tube to the middle ear. It's a common problem, one that
affects up to 62 percent of children by the time they reach their first
birthday.
"Continuous sucking on a pacifier can cause the auditory tubes to become
abnormally open, which allows secretions from the throat to seep into the middle
ear," explains Maria Smith, DDS, spokesperson for the Academy of General
Dentistry. "Transmission of bacteria in secretions would lead to middle ear
infections."
Getting the baby to drop the pacifier, however, may not be so easy. Pacifiers
date back to at least the 15th century, when mothers found that the sucking
device helped quiet their crying babies. Since then, it has been confirmed that
sucking is part of fetal and neonatal child development. Even after the baby is
born, the baby has a strong, instinctual urge to suck for the first six months
of life. After that period, according to researchers, the use of the pacifier is
habit-forming.
"It may be best to consider restricting the pacifier to be used only for
the baby's first 10 months," says Dr. Smith. "The pacifier comes in
contact with many microorganisms and may be a vehicle through which the
unsanitary bacteria and viruses enter the child's oral cavity."
The bottom line is that if your child is continuously battling middle ear
infections, you may have an alternative to surgery or antibiotics to stop this
problem, says Dr. Smith, which would be to remove the pacifier.
