When your child pulls on their ear or shakes their head, it’s often a sign of ear pain. The constant crying and sleepless nights take as much of a toll on the parents as they do on the child. Ear infections (acute otitis media) are one of the top reasons for pediatrician appointments and about 50% of all children experience their first one before they even reach their first birthday!

When your child pulls on their ear or shakes their head, it’s often a sign of ear pain.

The symptoms of ear infection may include pain, fever, irritability, and loss of appetite. Pulling on the ear or shaking their head is usually a sign that your child has ear pain. Sometimes the pressure causing the pain in the middle ear builds to a point where the eardrum bursts, and blood and pus are discharged from the ear, giving you real cause for concern. Relax, generally you child will feel better once this has occurred and the hole in the ear allows any remaining fluid to drain.

Many pediatricians treat ear infections with a round of antibiotics. Chronic ear infections? The doctor will usually recommend insertion of ear tubes to “keep everything working properly.”

Giving children antibiotics for ear infections does little to speed their recovery while raising the risk of some side effects, according to a study published this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study found that 80 out of 100 otherwise healthy children would recover from an acute ear infection within a few days if given medication only to relieve pain or fevers. If all 100 were given antibiotics instead, 92 would be better in the same period, said Dr. Tumaini Coker, the study’s lead author.

“But we would also expect three to 10 kids to develop rash and five to 10 to develop diarrhea,” said Coker, a pediatrician at Mattel Children’s Hospital at the University of California-Los Angeles.

The study found that 80 out of 100 children would recover from an acute ear infection within days

Coker noted that the increased number of children in the study who benefited from treatment with antibiotics was similar to the number that could be expected to get side effects from the antibiotic treatment.

“Clinicians and parents need to know the benefits and side effects on how to manage their child’s ear infection,” Coker said.

The study was designed to review existing research on the topic for the American Academy of Pediatrics, which is in the process of revising its guidelines for treating uncomplicated acute otitis media — ear infections that cause pain and fever. The pediatricians’ group and the American Academy of Family Physicians have suggested since 2004 that “observation” – avoiding antibiotics — is an option for treating ear infections in otherwise healthy children between the ages of 2 and 12.

 93 percent of all childhood ear infections improved with chiropractic care

Some believe that allergies, particularly to dairy products which increase mucous production, may cause chronic ear infections. Once removed from your child’s diet, the incidence of ear infections may drop significantly. Breastfeeding, particularly during the first few months of life, is associated with fewer ear infections in babies; it also gives added protection against other types of infection.

Many parents have discovered that chiropractic care not only relieves ear infections but can help prevent them. One study found that 93 percent of all childhood ear infections improved with chiropractic care. Seventy-five percent of the cases showed improvement in less than 10 days while 43 percent improved with only an adjustment or two! All this without drugs or surgery!

Dr. Stephanie Maj has a thriving family practice in the heart of Chicago. Her clinic is located at 1442 W. Belmont Ave., 1E, Chicago, IL 60657. 773.528.8485.

I just met Alice in my office. She is 3 months old and suffers from chronic acid reflux and colic. Again, one of the reasons I love Facebook is that it is a wealth of information. I sat down after my visit with this new little one and the first video I saw was this Ricki Lake Show clip. Enjoy!

Dr. Stephanie Maj has a thriving family practice in the heart of Chicago. Her clinic is located at 1442 W. Belmont Ave., 1E, Chicago, IL 60657. 773.528.8485.

Just today I had 2 new babies in my practice complaining of colic, to varying degrees. I then turn on my computer and find this new study talking about that very thing. They used over 100 babies and found they were 5x more likely to have decrease in symptoms with Chiropractic. Enjoy! Dr. Steph

Efficacy of Chiropractic Manual Therapy on Infant Colic:

A Pragmatic Single-Blind, Randomized Controlled Trial

The Chiro.Org Blog

SOURCE: J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 2012 (Oct); 35 (8): 600–607

Joyce E. Miller, BS, DC, David Newell, PhD, Jennifer E. Bolton, PhD

Associate Professor, Anglo-European College of Chiropractic, Bournemouth, UK. Electronic address: jmiller@aecc.ac.uk.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of chiropractic manual therapy for infants with unexplained crying behavior and if there was any effect of parental reporting bias.

METHODS: Infants with unexplained persistent crying (infant colic) were recruited between October 2007 and November 2009 at a chiropractic teaching clinic in the United Kingdom. Infants younger than 8 weeks were randomized to 1 of 3 groups: (i) infant treated, parent aware; (ii) infant treated, parent unaware; and (iii) infant not treated, parent unaware. The primary outcome was a daily crying diary completed by parents over a period of 10 days. Treatments were pragmatic, individualized to examination findings, and consisted of chiropractic manual therapy of the spine. Analysis of covariance was used to investigate differences between groups.

RESULTS: One hundred four patients were randomized. In parents blinded to treatment allocation, using 2 or less hours of crying per day to determine a clinically significant improvement in crying time, the increased odds of improvement in treated infants compared with those not receiving treatment were statistically significant at day 8 (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 8.1; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.4-45.0) and at day 10 (adjusted OR, 11.8; 95% CI, 2.1-68.3). The number needed to treat was 3. In contrast, the odds of improvement in treated infants were not significantly different in blinded compared with nonblinded parents (adjusted ORs, 0.7 [95% CI, 0.2-2.0] and 0.5 [95% CI, 0.1-1.6] at days 8 and 10, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS: In this study, chiropractic manual therapy improved crying behavior in infants with colic. The findings showed that knowledge of treatment by the parent did not appear to contribute to the observed treatment effects in this study. Thus, it is unlikely that observed treatment effect is due to bias on the part of the reporting parent.

Introduction

Excessive infant crying in otherwise healthy infants, traditionally called infant colic, continues to be an enigmatic condition with no known cause and no known cure. [1-3] Afflicting between 10% to 30% of all infants and consuming significant health care resources, [2] infant colic is a problem for parents and clinicians, both of whom try a wide range of therapies with often disappointing results.

Despite decades of research, a clear pathogenesis has not been elucidated. Notwithstanding, what is clear is that underlying disease is rare in the excessively crying baby [4] and that half of those affected recover by 6 months of age, [5] with a small proportion at risk of injury [6] or long-term developmental problems. [7-9] In an effort to help their child with what appears to be a painful condition, some parents choose complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), including chiropractic manual therapy. [9-12] To date, several randomized trials have been reported, [13-19] and although these trials demonstrate some reduction in crying, weaknesses in study methodologies have compromised their contribution to the evidence base. [20-23]

A Danish study in 1999 [13] showed manual therapy resulted in a significant reduction in crying in a 2-week trial when compared with simethicone (known to have no effect over placebo [3]) as a control. However, the parents were not blind to treatment allocation, which could have biased their reports of outcome. Similarly, a British study in 2006, comparing manual therapy with no treatment, showed significant declines in crying in the treatment group, but again, parents were not blind to the intervention received. [14] In contrast, a Norwegian study in 2002, which did blind the parents to treatment allocation, showed similar reductions in crying with manual therapy and with placebo. [15] However, the manual therapy in that trial was an intervention nonspecific to the patient. A British study in 2005 compared 2 manual therapies, and although participants in both treatment arms showed reductions in crying, there was no placebo group for comparison. [16] Finally, 3 South African studies showed that significant improvements in crying with manual therapy over detuned ultrasound [17] and medication [18, 19] can only be found in conference proceedings and therefore remain unpublished in the peer-reviewed literature. Based on these studies, there is some but not conclusive evidence to make a recommendation of manual therapy for the excessively crying baby. [22] For there to be a better understanding about the efficacy of chiropractic treatment for infants with colic, these methodological weaknesses should be addressed.

Therefore, the objectives of this study were to conduct a single-blind, randomized controlled trial comparing chiropractic manual therapy with no treatment and to determine whether parents’ knowledge of treatment biases their report of change in infant crying. The questions posed were as follows:

(i) in colicky infants, is there a difference in crying time between infants who receive chiropractic manual therapy and those who do not, and

(ii) in colicky infants, is there a difference in infant crying time between parents blinded and parents not blinded to treatment?

Conclusion

In conclusion, the findings of this study demonstrate a greater decline in crying behavior in colicky infants treated with chiropractic manual therapy compared with infants who were not treated. The findings also showed that knowledge of treatment by the parent did not appear to contribute to the observed treatment effects in this study. Thus, it is unlikely that observed treatment effect is due to bias on the part of the reporting parent.

Practical Application

This study found that excessively crying infants were at least 5 times as likely to cry significantly less if they were treated with chiropractic manual therapy than if they were not treated, even when brought to the same venue.

Infants who were treated were equally likely to improve, whether the parents were blinded to treatment or not.

Parents expected a short course of treatment and left care if no improvement was seen in the first week as well as if recovery was obtained in the first week.

Dr. Stephanie Maj has a thriving family practice in the heart of Chicago. Her clinic is located at 1442 W. Belmont Ave., 1E, Chicago, IL 60657. 773.528.8485.

One of the keys to chiropractic care is helping you avoid injuries.  I would like to talk about helping your child avoid both immediate and long term back problems due to backpacks.

First let’s take a look at some problems that heavy backpacks can cause:

• Poor posture
• Spinal disc compression
• Muscle Strain
• Misalignment of the back and neck
• Headaches
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Shoulder injury

These examples are bad enough, but if you read this blog regularly then you know that subluxation of the back and neck can lead to even more long term problems.

“Children must be shown how to correctly wear their backpacks and taught to be conscious of their posture while studying and watching television.”

Dr. Maj lists several ways to avoid injury:

Keep the Weight Down – Keep your child’s backpack weight at 10% of body weight or less. Encourage your child to stop at his or her locker frequently to change out textbooks and not carry any extra books. She also mentions buying a set of textbooks for home use, but scanning textbook pages into your child’s computer once a week would be a cheaper solution.

Organize the Backpack – Keep the weight centered (between the shoulders) and put heavy items closer to your child’s back.

A Backpack has Two Straps – Make sure your child uses both straps when wearing a backpack. Slinging it over one shoulder leads to physical compensation due to lack of balance, as well as putting more weight on one shoulder instead of spreading it over both shoulders.

Keep the Straps Tight – Keep the straps tight and the backpack close to the body. This helps keep it centered and avoids stress from the pendulum motion of a swinging backpack.

Pay Attention – Keep an eye your child’s spine. If he or she is adjusting body posture while carrying a backpack then it is too heavy. Don’t forget to ask your child about aches and pains. This is one of the easiest ways to avoid problems.

Did you know?

A recent article in Reuters Health news suggested that more parents are taking their children to the chiropractor, and are very happy they have done so! Studies published in 2007 and 2008 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the journal Pediatrics (the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics) confirmed that chiropractic care is the most common form of doctor directed complementary or alternative healthcare used by children in the U.S.

The doctors at Chiropractic Health & Happiness have received extensive training and certification in prenatal and pediatric chiropractic techniques by the International Chiropractic Pediatrics Association (ICPA). Chiropractic care for pregnant women and children is different than it is for adults, and the adjustments are very gentle.

Dr. Stephanie Maj has a thriving family practice in the heart of Chicago. Her clinic is located at 1442 W. Belmont Ave., 1E, Chicago, IL 60657. 773.528.8485. Chicago Chiropractor

Histamine is one of the few central nervous system neurotransmitters found to cause consistent blood-brain barrier opening.

The earlier literature was unclear, but studies of pial vessels and cultured endothelium reveal increased permeability mediated by H2 receptors and elevation of [Ca2+]i and an H1 receptor-mediated reduction in permeability coupled to an elevation of cAMP.

During the intra-osseous phase of tooth eruption, the proportional increase in the number of mast cells in the lamina propria and osteoclasts indicates that mast cells could be involved in the bone resorption and, thereby, in the establishment of the eruptive pathway.

Activated mast cells degranulate and thereby release several inflammatory mediators and growth factors, including histamine.

References:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10696506

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7982064; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2687937

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7580.2010.01249.x/full

Dr. Stephanie Maj has a thriving family practice in the heart of Chicago. Her clinic is located at 1442 W. Belmont Ave., 1E, Chicago, IL 60657. 773.528.8485. www.communitychiropractic.net

Clinical Chiropractic 2011 (Sep); 14 (3): 97–105  Matthew F. Doyle

Objective: To review the literature as to the safety of paediatric chiropractic care and to offer recommendations for congruent consistent terminology use.

Design: Best Evidence Topic.

Methods: Formulation of a clinical question based on a patient query. PubMed, Index to Chiropractic Literature and the Cochrane Library were searched on the 19th of June 2010. A total of nine specifically relevant articles were retrieved and critically reviewed.

Results: The reviewed published chiropractic literature suggests a rate of 0.53% to 1% mild adverse events (AE) associated with chiropractic paediatric manipulative therapy (PMT). Put in terms of individual patients, between one in 100 to 200 patients presenting for chiropractic care; or in terms of patient visits, between one mild AE per 1310 visits to one per 1812 visits. For a comparison, Osteopathic PMT have a reported rate of 9%, and medical practitioners utilising PMT under the auspices of ‘chiropractic therapy’ have reported a rate of 6%. No serious AE has been reported in the literature since 1992 and no death possibly associated with chiropractic PMT has been reported for over 40 years.

Conclusion: The application of modern chiropractic paediatric care within the outlined framework is safe. A reasonable caution to the parent/guardian is that one child per 100 to 200 attending may have a mild adverse events, with irritability or soreness lasting less than 24 hours, resolving without the need for additional care beyond initial chiropractic recommendations.

Dr. Stephanie Maj has a thriving family practice in the heart of Chicago. Her clinic is located at 1442 W. Belmont Ave., 1E, Chicago, IL 60657. 773.528.8485. www.communitychiropractic.net

I am celebrating the 3 year anniversary of my blog. This has been such an amazing avenue to disseminate information to my patients and to my community. There is so much information out there and I have tried to be a positive voice rising above the negative that permeates our news.

It has come to my attention that this attitude is getting noticed. I am now regularly being approached by professional bloggers to post articles on drmaj.com.  EXCITING!!!   Alia Haley is one of those bloggers by profession.  I found this article simple and super helpful.  ENJOY!!

How to be your Partners’ greatest asset during labor and delivery

After a long wait of nine months finally you know that your wait to see your baby is about to be over. You both, as parents are excited and look forward to the baby’s arrival but while your partner has to go through an intense physical, mental and emotional roller coaster ride before baby birth, it is your time now to reassure her and make her belief that you are by her side and are ready to be her biggest asset during the arduous process of labor pains and delivery. Here, we present you some important tips on how to become a great partner during labor struggles to bring out your bundle of joy in this world.

1. Be sensitive to her needs

The first step towards being an asset is to be sensitive towards the needs of your partner. Cater to her needs with empathy and maintain you’re cool even when she gets hyper. Remember she is going through one of the most trying phases and she needs empathy.

2. Take care of your needs as well

As a supporter it is very important for you that you stay fit and healthy while your partner is going through the labor pains and delivery. Rather than being a support you will be rather a burden for everyone, including your partner if you fall ill or faint during such a crucial time. SO eat well and take care of your own needs.

3. Be calm

Staying calm all through the process of labor pains and delivery will help you partner stay reassured that you are in control of the situation and you believe that everything will be all right by the end of the entire process. Once your partner gets a reassuring hug from you she will feel far more emotionally secure.

4. Be a cheerleader

It is very important that you cheer up your partner while she is going through the tough phase of labor pains and delivery. A few words of appreciation can motivate her to do better while pushing for the baby but remember that it is a very tough and physically challenging job. It is also possible that she does not like your cheerleading and hence it is important that you take cues from her body language and if you find any hint that she does not like your words of appreciation during the intense and painful moments then you better be sympathetic towards her needs and stop doing so.

5. Avoid any kind of confrontation or bitterness

Your partner may feel highly frustrated and helpless during the various phases of labor and delivery and may unleash at you at some point of time. She may abuse you or say unkind words to your during those trying times. If such a situation arises then don’t lose your self control, maintain you’re cool and just avoid any kind of confrontation or bitterness. Don’t get into any kind of debate. Empathize with her and try to understand that she is going through tough times and just wants to vent out her emotions and you being her closest, she naturally wants to leash out on you rather than someone totally unknown like the nurse or the doctor. She will forget all the bitterness very soon, once she gets out of the painful phase and becomes mother of your child.

6. Inform people about baby’s arrival

Once your baby arrives in this world and you as a family are well settled, inform all your relatives and friends about baby’s arrival. Seek her opinion also about this because she may not like visitors pouring in immediately after baby’s arrival. Once she has recovered from the immediate physical and emotional stress she may be willing to meet people so ask her before you start shooting messages to people about baby’s arrival. It will be really helpful if you make a list of contacts beforehand along with your partner to whom you have to shoot the message about baby’s arrival.

7. Take care of your baby and partner’s needs

After baby birth, the chances are that she will be totally exhaust and will need some time to get back to her cheerful and healthy self. Give her this time and space and take over baby’s responsibilities meanwhile your wife takes much needed rest. You can do end number of things to make life of your partner easy by changing the diapers of the baby, by taking care of her dietary and medical needs, etc. Also take care of her needs and pay attention to her diet and medicines and other needs.

8. Don’t forget she needs your support

Once the baby and the mother are at home, don’t think that your job is over. In fact your job has started now in a new way. Pay attention to your partner’s and baby’s needs and be tender towards them. You will have to adjust many things in first few months but that certainly will lead to a strong bonding between you and your partner as well as you and your baby.

All the vows you made during those romantic moments were not mere fancy words; you have adhered to them in every possible way.

About the author: Alia Haley is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology and autos. Beside this she is fond of cars and fancy accessories. Recently an article on eco friendly cars attracted her attention. These days she is busy in writing an article on appendicitis.

Dr. Stephanie Maj has a thriving family practice in the heart of Chicago. Her clinic is located at 1442 W. Belmont Ave., 1E, Chicago, IL 60657. 773.528.8485. www.communitychiropractic.net