Baby Ear Infection

Baby ear infection symptoms typically include pulling one or both ears, unusual irritability, difficulty sleeping, crying and fever. Baby ear infection is most likely to be caused by bacteria or virus that manages to get inside the baby's ear. These can originally cause colds, sore throats or other respiratory problems which then spread to the ear. Middle ear infections are most common in children. These bacteria travel to the middle ear via the lining of the Eustachian tube which then results in an infection. When an infection is present, the lining of the middle ear swells and the Eustachian tube gets blocked.

When white cells travel to the site to fight the infection, the accumulation of these white cells which kill the bacteria and the cells themselves result in the formation of a thick yellow or yellowish-white pus or discharge in the middle ear. The infant might have trouble hearing because of the accumulation of the fluid leading to pain when the infection gets worse. The difficulty in detecting the symptoms in baby ear infection is because babies and infants do not have the capacity to articulate their problems as they do not have the speech or language skills at that stage. For this reason and also the fact that there could be other health problems that might cause these symptoms to manifest, infants should be seen by a doctor if they exhibit any of the symptoms. Infants are more vulnerable to ear infections because they have trouble fighting infections due their under developed immune system.

There could also be other reasons why infants are susceptible to ear infections including the fact that children's adenoids are larger than in adults. Adenoids are located in the back of the upper part of the throat close to the Eustachian tubes. When adenoids get enlarge, they can obstruct or interfere with the Eustachian tube opening. Furthermore, adenoids may become infected and this infection may spread into the Eustachian tubes. With infants, infections can take a turn for the worse very quickly and it is vital that you read up on baby ear infection.

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