For a child, the ears, nose, and throat can be challenging. Most illnesses enter the body through the nose and mouth, and the ears and throat pay the price. Children in particular have many problems with their ears, nose, and throats. The American Pediatric Association has found that 80% of children will experience an ear infection by age four. Ear infections are the leading source for hearing loss in children. Your pediatrician is the best person to diagnose and treat your child’s ear infections.
If your child’s ear infections become chronic, the physician may recommend ear tubes that are designed to help the ear drain the fluid, which is causing the infection. In addition to ear infections, there are also other conditions that affect a child’s hearing that your pediatrician is trained to treat. (Swimmers ear, outer ear infections, etc.).
Multiple ear conditions negatively affect the child’s speech and language development. It is estimated that ear infections cause permanent hearing loss for 25% of the children that have 3 or more ear infections during the first three years of life. The hearing loss results in speech and language delays that require years of speech therapy to correct. In some cases, the hearing loss is so severe that the child also experiences social and cognitive delays as well.
Sinusitis affects more children than it does adults. This is because children are developing their immune systems during the first five years of life. Once again, we see that children are highly susceptible to ear nose and throat conditions. Sinusitis is a very painful condition and if misdiagnosed, your child will suffer in pain needlessly. When misdiagnosed, sinusitis causes unbearable pain for the child, which is not relieved by regular pain medication. Pediatricians are trained to quickly diagnose sinusitis correctly, so your child can begin treatment as soon as possible.
Throat problems are not so easy to pinpoint. A sore throat may be accompanied by a fever, aches, headaches, stuffy nose, coughing, or mucus. Does that sore throat mean stomach flu, strep throat, mononucleosis, or pneumonia? There are many steps to diagnosing that a pediatrician goes through when you bring in a child with a sore throat. Once again, the years of pediatric training that a pediatrician undergoes will ensure that your child is diagnosed quickly and accurately.