Big News: Reflux and Ear Infections? !!!

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Chronic ear infections are a frustrating problem for many young children. A study published in the February 9, 2002 issue of The Lancet suggests a dramatic new approach to dealing with ear infections. The researchers analyzed the fluid in the ears of 54 children with ear infections (OME). Surprisingly, 45 of the children had digestive enzymes from the stomach (pepsin and pepsinogen) at concentrations 1000 times higher than expected. It appears that when a young child is lying in his back, the acidic liquid from the stomach can flow to the back of his throat and then drip into the Eustachian tube. This would cause irritation and swelling (ear burn?), thus setting up an ear infection. I look forward to seeing if measures to control reflux prove effective for preventing ear infections. I suspect they will.

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Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2010-07-14 16:06.

continuing issues after tube placement

Dr. Greene- My 2 year old son had tubes placed in his ear drums at 13 months. As of 2 days ago, they were still present and functioning nearly 12 months after surgery. Immediately following surgery, he had recurrent ear infections with copious amounts of green drainage from nose and both ears for another 3 1/2 months. At that point, the ENT who placed the tubes diagnosed adenoiditis, and put him on Augmentin for 3 weeks in an attempt to avoid an adenoidectomy. Gladly, it worked! He went antibiotic free for 2 months! Since then, nearly 5 months ago, we've had another 8 rounds of antibiotics. Of the 8, 1 was for strep throat and 1 was for bronchitis. The other 6 were for ear infections. We are due to return to the ENT next week for another evaluation. At this point, how might we best (and least invasively) find the root cause of the ear infections? How might we know whether they're viral, acid reflux induced, or truly adenoiditis?