Let’s take a few moments to clear up some misconceptions about ear infections. Number one is that they’re normal. They aren’t normal! They are very common, but that doesn’t make them normal.
Number two is that horizontal eustachian tubes are to blame. We hear this all the time and it’s frustrating because kids are designed to have horizontal eustachian tubes and not all kids get ear infections. So if some kids are getting ear infections and some are not, but they all have horizontal eustachian tubes, that can’t be the reason.
Number three is that all ear infections are bacterial. When is the last time you brought a child to a pediatrician’s office for an ear infection and didn’t get antibiotics? Yet, what if it was a viral infection? What if it was fungal? What if it was just inflamed because of the fluid build-up? Ear infections are not always bacterial. And even if they were, these kids aren’t wandering through random clouds of bacteria, that some people aren’t catching. The problem is that the ears aren’t draining, and if your ears aren’t draining, that fluid builds up. And that stagnant fluid is a perfect breeding ground for viruses or bacteria or just general inflammation. Think of your yard. If you had stagnant water pooling in your yard, you get mosquitoes. Now you have the choice to either spray for mosquitoes, or you can get the water moving. Same thing with the ears. Don’t you want to improve your child’s ability to drain so you aren’t constantly fighting off infections?