Preventive measures to avoid AOM

One of the essential measures to prevent AOM and its recurrence is to limit nasal sinus infections:

• ensure good nasal hygiene, an essential measure, with regular instillations of physiological serum and a good blowing, spontaneous or using a baby nose
• find and treat respiratory allergies but also food allergies
• consider removing adenoids if they are enlarged

Vaccination against pneumococcus and Haemophilus influenza reduces the frequency of ear infections in children and in particular those with resistant germs.

Other basic measures against AOM

• Wash your hands regularly.

Teach children to do the same. This is the main way to prevent cold, which can lead to an ear infection.

• Do not smoke and avoid exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke.

Children exposed to second-hand smoke are much more likely to get ear infections. Not to mention that the healing is often longer. Children whose parents smoke at home have been shown to have up to 4 times more ear infections than children who live in a smoke-free environment. Second-hand smoke interferes with the proper functioning of the eustachian tube and the protective properties of the lining of the nasopharynx.

• Choose a small daycare, as much as possible.

The more children there are in daycare or nursery, the more the child is exposed to the risk of contracting colds.

• Give preference to breastfeeding as much as possible.

According to experts at the Mayo Clinic, in the United States, bottle-fed babies are 2-3 times more likely to get ear infections than breast-fed infants. Breastfeeding strengthens the baby’s immune defenses.

• Installation of a transtympanic aerator helps to ventilate the tympanic cavity and evacuate secretions.

It improves hearing and limits the recurrence of AOM. An audiometric test should be performed before and after fitting. The trans-tympanic ventilator spontaneously “falls off” after several months during which it is advisable not to put water in the ear. The eardrum usually closes spontaneously.

What you should not do

Some had suggested taking antibiotics regularly as a preventive measure. Not only does this practice not prevent acute otitis media, but it exposes the child to the side effects of antibiotics and leads to resistance of germs to antibiotics, which is bad both on an individual level (risk of not having access to antibiotics). antibiotic effective in subsequent infection) and collectively (increase in resistant bacteria in the population).