Hearing Loss

Most of us associate hearing loss with old age, but it is increasingly common for children and teens to suffer from mild to moderate hearing loss. Nearly 15% of kids have hearing loss according to the CDC. Hearing loss can be due to many things that are difficult to control, such as heredity, infection, and medications. In kids and teens it is oven due to a preventable cause: noise.

Where does the excessive noise come from?

Even young children are exposed to more loud noises through toys, television, and gaming devices than children of years past.

Widespread use of ear buds for prolonged periods can take its toll on hearing. Unlike the bulky headphones used when I was a child, earbuds deliver sound directly into the ear canal without any sound buffering in between. Most often the earbuds are used with iPods and other mp3 players are low to mediocre quality, so they are unable to transit the bass as effectively. Many kids turn the music up to hear the bass. If others can hear the music coming from ear buds, they are too loud!

Loud concerts or sporting events can also expose our ears to excessive volumes for a prolonged period of time.

Not all excessive noise is from kids being undisciplined - some kids are helping out the family or trying to earn extra cash by mowing lawns or using power tools, which puts them at increased risk.

How much is too much?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), being exposed to more than 85 decibels (dB) of sound for eight hours can damage your hearing. At 105 dB, hearing loss is possible after a mere 5 minutes.

If you're like me, that means nothing because how much is 85 dB? There is a great chart of common sounds and how loud they are on this page from the CDC. There are also several free apps available for download on smartphones and tablets - search "sound meter" or "decibel" and read reviews before downloading. Take advantage of these -- and because it's in the phone, kids might actually have fun playing around with them and learning about their environmental risks at the same time!

Signs of hearing loss

One early sign of excessive noise is ringing in the ears, but most people with hearing loss never realize it's happening because it's slowly progressive. If you notice your child asking "what" more often or complaining that the television is too quiet when others hear it well, it is a good idea to have their hearing tested.

Consequences of hearing loss 

There are many potential consequences to hearing loss:

• Learning - you have to be able to hear the lecture. 
• Behaviors - if directions and instructions are missed, a child might incorrectly be seen as misbehaving. 
• Friendships and social skills - if a child can't follow a conversation they aren't easy to talk to or play with.
• Job availability - many jobs require hearing at a certain level. 

Prevention

Talk to your kids about the risks of their habits that involve loud sounds. Unfortunately kids won't always take parental advice to heart because they have a feeling of invincibility, but studies show if they learn about hearing loss they are more likely to use protection. Even more so, what their friends are doing alters their behavior. Teach not only your kids, but also their friends. If they're all going to a loud event, consider giving them all ear plugs. Once hearing is damaged they can't gain the hearing back, so prevention is key.

Ways to protect include:

• Wear hearing protection (earplugs) when mowing the grass and attending loud events, such as concerts or sporting events.
• Turn down your music! Some music players have alerts when the volume goes too loud, but those can be ignored if the child doesn't understand why it's important to lower the volume. If others can hear the music you're listening to through earbuds, turn it down.
• Lower the maximum volume setting on your iPod or mp3 player. To do this, go to "Settings" and select "Volume Limit" under Music. Set it at about 60% of the full volume, that way you can't accidentally turn your music too high.
• Use big headphones instead of earbuds. They offer more external noise cancelling, which allows the music to be heard better at lower volumes. They are also physically further from your eardrum, which helps.
• If you must use earbuds, use high quality buds that transmit bass if you are tempted to turn music up to hear the bass.
• Follow the 60/60 rule: No more than 60 minutes of listening at a time, and no higher than 60 percent of maximum volume. If you go under "settings," you can actually set your iPod for maximum volume setting of 60 percent, so you can't accidentally turn your music up too loud.
• Higher pitched sounds have greater potential to damage your ears than lower pitched sounds. Turn down the volume when a high-pitched song comes on.
• Try not to fall asleep with earbuds or headphones on. The time of exposure matters and why waste sleep time damaging your ears? 
• If you need "white noise" to fall to sleep, put together a playlist of soft songs or sounds and have it play at a low volume from a speaker on your bedside table. Use your clock's "sleep" function, which will automatically turn off your music after a set amount of time to ensure the music doesn't end up playing all night long, which saves energy in addition to your hearing.
• As always: model these behaviors for your children. If they see you mowing the grass with loud music blaring in your ears, they will grow up to do the same. If you wear ear buds many hours of the day, they will see that as a normal and acceptable behavior. 

What happens that hurts our hearing?

Keep the volume down – Too loud and too long can damage your hearing shows a man listening to music. Below it the music soundtrack and volume levels are shown. The video then breaks to showing what happens to the hair cells in our ear with these volumes, which makes the damage more understandable because you can see it happening. 

Resources:

Hearing Screening and Prevention of Hearing Loss in Adolescents

CDC's Hearing Loss main page

Evolution of Illness

When kids are sick, parents understandably want them to feel better quickly. They want a sound night's sleep. They want to be able to return to work/school. They want to see a happy, healthy child again. They come to our office hoping for answers and a cure.

Sometimes there is no quick fix, just treating symptoms and time.

This is the season we are seeing a lot of sickness. It's been about 11 years, but I remember the frustrations of having a sick baby when my daughter had bronchiolitis. Some of the details are muddy, but I remember the feelings of inadequacy because I couldn't help her feel any better any faster. I knew the illness tends to get worse before it gets better and there is little we can do to alter its course, but knowing this it didn't make me feel any better as the mom who was helpless.

I lost sleep for several nights as I watched her pant (not breathe, but pant). I resorted to giving asthma-type breathing treatments (because my son had wheezing so we had everything we needed to give a treatment at home) despite the fact that they didn't seem to help her much. It was probably the humidified air that helped more than anything. But the vaporizer in her room and the saline to suction her nose wasn't helping, so I wanted to at least try the asthma medicine. She kept wheezing. We brought her in to the office 3 days in a row to have someone else check her. I can't check oxygen levels at home and needed someone to objectively examiner her.  So three days in a row we went in for repeat exams. She was able to maintain her oxygen level and stay hydrated despite breathing 60-70 times/minute for days. I still don't know how. I remember wishing her oxygen level would drop enough that we could hospitalize her, not critically, just enough. Then she'd be on monitors, and maybe I could sleep a bit knowing someone else was watching her. Thankfully she never got that sick, and eventually we were all sleeping again, but it took a long time for that.

So I understand the frustration when we tell parents things to do at home and ask that they come back in  __ days or if ___, ____, ___ symptoms worsen. It really isn't that we are holding out on a treatment that will fix the illness, it's just that we don't have a quick fix for many illnesses. We need to be able to examine at different points in the evolution of the illness to get a full picture of what is going on.

The exam can tell us a lot, but it doesn't predict the future. One minute ears can look normal, the next they develop signs of an infection. I cannot say how many times I've heard a parent complain that someone else "missed" something on exam that I now see. Yes, sometimes things can be missed, but I suspect that most of the times the exam has simply changed.

I learned this phenomenon as a resident on the inpatient unit. I had a patient who had been admitted for an abdominal issue. I did a physical on the child in the morning before rounds, including looking at ears, which were normal. Late that afternoon the nurse called because a fever had started. New symptom, so another exam was done. This time the ears were red and full of pus. Within hours this child had developed a double ear infection. I examined the ears both times and they were definitely different.

I understand the frustration (and expense) to take kids back in to be seen if symptoms worsen, change, or simply just don't resolve at home. If symptoms change, we need to re-evaluate, which includes an exam. Medical providers cannot look into the future to see what will develop. It is not appropriate (or effective) to put kids on an antibiotic or iv fluids to prevent the illness from taking its natural progression. Sometimes we need time to see how the illness progresses to see what other treatments might be needed.

When parents call back and want something else done, they are often upset that we want to see the child again. I hear many types of complaints.

Money is probably the biggest issue. It is not because we want your co pay. The "we" I use here is not just my office and I am not speaking of any particular situation. With online doctor rating sites, social media sites, and knowing doctors around the country, I write with many examples in mind. I've seen online complaints that doctors are just money hungry, trying to get someone to come back in just so we can charge more money. It is true that we charge for every visit. We are not able to waive the co pay because we did "something wrong" or "missed a diagnosis" the first time. Each is a separate visit with updated information and a separate exam. Insurance contracts dictate that a separate co pay is charged. We must adhere to legal contracts or it would be considered insurance fraud.

Increasing our numbers for "production" is sometimes brought up. It is not because we want to fill our waiting room with more children to increase the waiting time for everyone else. We don't want to waste your time or ours. But we need to see a child to know what is happening at that moment to be able to give any valuable advice and treatment.

We want to see your child again because we need to see your child to know what to do. Maybe now the child's symptoms have changed.  Maybe not, but without the history and exam we do not know. The exam might now show wheezing, low oxygen levels, a new ear infection or sounds of pneumonia. Sometimes the exam still is overall normal, but the fever's been going on long enough without any identifiable cause, which requires lab and/or xray evaluation. 

Please remember that if you get a different answer at a different visit, it doesn't mean that the first assessment was wrong. Usually it is due to a progression of the illness, and things change. Human bodies are not static.

Ear Piercing - What's right for one isn't the answer for all!

I am often asked by parents when I think it is the right time to pierce ears on children. I have never read a scientifically based report on the best time - and never expect to! This is very much a parent / family decision.

Parents Magazine online recently posted Ear Piercing for Kids to address some of the common questions and answers. Some of these answers have scientific basis-- such as the type of metal-- most do not.

There is not one age that is "best" to pierce an ear. Many people go through life without ears pierced. Some cultures pierce ears in the newborn period. Some families have a guideline of 7 or 10 years old. Some kids want their ears pierced, but cannot due to sports that will not allow studs in during practice/games/competitions and new studs cannot be removed. Seasons overlap, so there is no 6 week period allowing studs to remain in place. (Some sports will allow studs to be covered with a band aide, but not all, so be sure to ask your team's rules before piercing!)

What is right? It depends on your culture and goals.

I have my personal opinions and fears.

I have seen infants pull earrings out, so I very much worry about damage to the earlobe and the choking risk of any jewelry on infants. My worry is not so strong to refuse to pierce infants-- I have many patient families who prefer to pierce ears in infancy for many reasons, and for many it is culturally based. I want to support other cultures, so have not tried to dissuade these families and most infants do very well with it. And if I do it for one, I should do it for all, right?

The infection risk mentioned in the article above for the first couple of months makes sense, but to stop that risk at 6 months seems premature to me. My reason: at 6 months babies spend a lot of time with their hands in their mouths, then they grab their ears. The mouth is a germy place, and to put the saliva all over the freshly pierced ear seems a risk to me.

On a technical note, I am more nervous piercing infant earlobes than bigger kids. Older children who want their ears pierced will usually sit still-- scared maybe, but still.  Infants must be held and they are typically crying when held. A small variance in positioning on a small earlobe can grow to a more noticeable difference as the earlobe grows. Bigger earlobes are easier to mark and position earrings symmetrically. I think this is a big issue for me because I do not like the angle of my earring holes. (This is why I rarely wear earrings. I had mine pierced initially at about 6 years, I think. They got infected and I had to let them close and then they were later re-pierced. I am not sure if the original hole made the 2nd piercing more difficult or not, but the angle makes the earrings too upright for my liking.)

The more I type, the more I think I should start trying to talk families into waiting...

What do you think?

Ear Wax: Both Good and Bad

Ear Wax Removal NOT Recommended

We make ear wax, also known as cerumen. Many people are annoyed by wax buildup, but it has a purpose! Wax grabs all the dust, dirt, and other debris that gets into our ears. It also moisturizes the ear canal ~ without it our ears become itchy. It even has special properties that prevent infection. That's all good stuff, so don't be too frustrated with a little wax!

Most often the wax moves from the inner part of the ear canal to the outer edge of the canal on its own.  It is amazing to me how our bodies are put together so perfectly: it is designed so the wax is made deep in the canal, then skin cells and wax migrate to the outer edge of the canal, taking with them debris! Some people naturally make dry wax, others make wet wax. This can be due to genetics and other factors. The important thing to remember with this is how your wax tends to build up and how to best keep it from building up.

If wax builds up it can cause pain, itching, ringing in the ear, dizziness, decreased hearing, and infection.  Inappropriate cleaning with hard and/or sharp objects (such as an cotton swabs or paperclips) can increase the risk of infection or even perforation of the ear drum.  Even special cotton swabs made "safe for ears" can push wax deeper and cause a solid collection of wax plugging up the canal.

How can parents help babies and kids keep their ears clean?

Routine bathing with clean warm water allowed to run into the ear followed by a gentle wiping with a cloth is all that is needed most of the time. 

Ear drops made for wax removal with carbamide peroxide can be put in the ear as long as there is no hole in the ear drum or tubes.  The oily peroxide acts to grab the wax and bubble it up. Then rinse with clean warm water and a soft cloth (see syringe tips below). If there is excessive buildup, daily use of drops for 3-5 days followed by weekly use of the drops to prevent more buildup is recommended. (For particularly stubborn wax, using drops 2-3 times/day for 3-5 days initially can help.)

Make your own solution of 1:1 warm water:vinegar and gently irrigate the ear with a bulb syringe.  

Mineral oil or glycerin drops can be put in the ear. Let a few drops soak for a few minutes and then rinse with warm water and a soft cloth. 

Occasional use of a syringe to gently irrigate the ear can help. Using the bulb syringe:

• First, be sure it is clean! Fungi and bacteria can grow within the bulb ~ you don't want to irrigate the ear with those!  While they can be boiled, they are also relatively inexpensive and easily available, so frequent replacement is not a bad idea.
• Use only warm water /fluids in the ear (about body temperature or just above body temperature is good). Cold fluids will make the person dizzy and possibly nauseous! If using drops first, put the bottle in warm water or rub it between your hands a few minutes (as if rubbing hands together to warm them, but with the bottle between the hands). Don't overheat the fluid and risk burning the canal!
• Have the child stand in the tub or shower.
• Pull up and back gently on the outer ear to straighten out the canal.
• Aim the tip slightly up and back so the water will run along the roof of the canal and back along the floor. Do NOT aim straight back or the water will hit the eardrum directly and can impact hearing. 
• Don't push the water too fast ~ a slow gentle irrigation will be better tolerated. If they complain, recheck the angle and push slower. If complaining continues, bring them to the office to let us do it to be sure there isn't more to the story.
• Refill the syringe and repeat as needed until the wax is removed. 
• Use a soft cloth to grab any wax you can see and dry the ear when done. Some people like to use a hair dryer set on low to dry the canal. Just be sure to not burn the skin! 

If wax continues to be a problem, we can remove it in the office with one of two methods:

After inspecting the ear canal carefully with an otoscope (or as I call it with the kids: my magic flashlight), we can use a curette (looks like a spoon or a loop depending on provider's preference and wax type) to go behind the wax and pull it out.  This is often the fastest method in the office, but is not always possible if the wax is too flaky or impacted into the canal leaving no room for the curette to pass behind the wax.  It should only be done by trained professionals... don't attempt this at home!

If the wax is plugging up too much of the canal, the canal is very tender, or if the wax is particularly flaky and breaks on contact with the loop, we will let the ear soak in a peroxide solution then irrigate with warm water. This process takes longer but is better tolerated by many kids and they think it is fun to "shower their ear".  We often must follow this with the curette to get the softened wax completely out. 

My biggest tips:

Not Safe!

• Never use cotton tipped swabs, pipe cleaners, pencils, fingernails, or anything else that is solid to clean the ear! (Note: I still don't recommend them if the package says "safe" ~ they aren't!)
• Don't put liquid in the ear canal if there is a hole in the ear drum (tubes are included in this). Pus draining from the ear is a sign that there might be a hole.
• Ear candles are not a safe solution. Burns are too big of a risk!
• The ear canal is very sensitive, especially if wax buildup has been there a while and has caused an infection of the skin in the canal.  Anything put into the ear can increase any pre-existing pain. 
• If the skin is friable from prolonged wax and/or infection there is often bleeding with cleaning. If you notice this at home, your child should have the ears evaluated in our office. We will look for holes in the ear drum, scratches on the skin in the canal, and signs of infection needing antibiotic.
• Some people who suffer from itchy ears can help themselves by NOT cleaning their ears so much!
• Earwax usually can be left alone. Only try to clean it out if there are signs of problems with it (ear pain, ringing in the ears, decreased hearing, etc). If kids don't tolerate removal with the methods above, bring them in for us to take a good look. There might be more to the story that needs to be addressed. 
• If there is significant ear pain, pus or bleeding from the ear, or an object in the ear, bring your child in to the office to have us assess and treat.

UPDATE:

In January of 2017, the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation issued updated AAP-endorsed guidelines regarding wax buildup. Check out this list of Do's and Don'ts from the guidelines.