Is this true?? - Re: ear infections
mysweetpeasWil&Wes wrote: I read somewhere, maybe in one of my parenting books, that letting your child drink a bottle or sippy on his back will cause ear infections. Anyone heard this before? Now I would never give Wil a sippy in bed, but because he still hasn't learned how to tip the sippy back and drink, I have to lie him down on the floor. Or I hold him in my arms. Either way, he drinks it all down and he has NEVER had an ear infection. 
Just wondering if any of you have heard or experienced this. 
kimberley replied: i have heard this but what i understood it to mean was a child falling asleep with the bottle may get spillage in his/her ear from a dripping bottle. 
mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied:
Oh, that may be it, but I swear it just said lying on back in general. Interesting!
coasterqueen replied: Hmm, not real sure. I know bottles/sippys - the jaw action can contribute to ear infections or so I read about before.
amynicole21 replied: I think it's the same thing as nursing laying down causing ear infections. Somehow the liquid pools where it shouldn't... though anatomically I don't really understand how that works 
Maddie&EthansMom replied: I don't know. I didn't do anything different with my two kids. Maddie had ear infections and Ethan didn't. Some people are more prone to them I think. My brothers all got ear infections growing up and I never had a single one.
mckayleesmom replied: Both Mckaylee and Russell drink laying down and neither has ever had an ear infection.
3_call_me_mama replied: I think it has somethign to do with teh sinuses adn eustachian tubes. (Don't quote me but I remember reading it somewhere) I think the liquid pools in the back of mouth near the eustachian tube sand can leak into the ears, if that makes sense.
ian'smommy replied: Some children are more prone than others but laying flat on their backs and having to suck to drink can actually bring on infections. Nursing is slightly different because the baby is not laying flat, but it slightly propped.
Since the ears, nose and throat are all connected, sucking while on the back can in fact get fluid in the ears. I don't know all the technical terms but I think I will look it up and see what I can find. On another note, if you give them a bottle or cup in bed, make sure it is water and not milk. Milk will pool in their mouth when they fall asleep and turn to sugar which will then eventually cause cavities when the child has teeth. I will look up the other stuff about what can cause ear infections and post what I find. 
mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied:
Hey thanks! I forget, are you a nurse??
So if that's the case, how do I get Wil to learn to tip the sippy back and drink? He holds it on his own, but he will bend his head forward and try and drink. And of course he then gets very frustrated and throws it down!
ilovemybaby replied:
Yeah it's like someone was telling me recently that she once had ketchup come out her nose! All those passages are connected.
I think some kids are just more prone to ear infections though. Abby has never had one and she has a pacifier (I also read that they can cause ear infections) and always drinks in a semi-lying-down position. And she lies down in the bath tub and gets water in her ears  I know that's not a good thing but it's way easier to wash the shampoo out of her hair that way.
ian'smommy replied:
Some children are definitely more prone to it. I didn't have many when I was a kid and my husband had to have tubes. My son had to have tubes. I found a website that tells of how the ear works. Simply getting water in their ears from swimming or bathtime is not one of those causes.
I plan to look up some other sites as well.
http://www.drgreene.com/21_750.html
ian'smommy replied:
No I'm not a nurse, but my son has had enough infections that I have had plenty of talks with the doctors... 
He has had a set of tubes that recently fell out and depending on how his ears are doing, he may need them again because he just lost the tubes and has had an ear infection in both ears already. We'll have to see what happens 
What kind of sippy does he use?
ian'smommy replied: I found this as well. Again, it can contribute. It doesn't mean it WILL happen that way. SOme children are just more prone to it than others.
* infants are held in a position that allows the Eustachian tubes to function well. To improve protection for bottle-fed babies, mothers should not lay babies down with their bottle; they should hold the infants in the same way they would to breast-feed them.
Several studies have found that the use of pacifiers place children at even higher risk for ear infections. Sucking increases production of saliva, which is a vehicle for bacteria that can travel up the Eustachian tubes to the middle ear.
Hope this helps.
ilovemybaby replied:
Well that's good to know! I went to a Health Camp when I was a kid and the carers always used to tell us not to get water in our ears when we were washing our hair! They used to make us hold our head on one side and then the other for like a minute or two to get the water out. I think that's where I got it from. Crazy huh!
ian'smommy replied:
Simply getting water in the ears won't cause the infection, but it isn't comfortable either.. I try to keep water out of my ears even, but only for comfort reasons.
It can probably cause an earache, but definitely not an infection
mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied:
He uses the Playtex hard top kind. I think it's a Step 3, not sure.
six_kids_at_28 replied:
I've never heard that before...interesting
ian'smommy replied:
Does it have a valve? Non-drip? If a sippy drips there is not as much sucking going on. They need to suck harder to get any liquid out of a non-drip sippy which tends to make the risk go up.
b&bsmom replied: Yes, as it has been said some children will get ear infections like that. My children would have ear infections all the time and I never knew it. My daughter was worse than my son. Some kids do just get them more often. And yes all that stuff is connected. I know we were hoping ( and did) get my dd through her infections because as they get older the tubes repostion ( I guess that is the word I am looking for) and then they are not as prone to getting them. My dd is 6 now and I don't think we have had an ear infection in almost 2 years. ( knock on wood). Hope all that helped.
mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied:
It has a valve, non-drip. So should I take the valve out? It would get all over him then since he doesn't know how to tip it correctly. How do I get him to tip it?
You all have helped thanks! We haven't had any ear infections yet, so I'm not that worried, but it's still good to know!
redchief replied: Like other systemic infections, Acute Otitis Media (AOM - the technical term for ear infection) is caused by bacteria or viruses. There isn't any evidence that allowing a child to go to bed with a bottle or sippy will cause that. Most docs agree that AOM, like most infections, the bacterial infections are passed from one person to another. Children, especially caucasian and Native American males, younger than 4 are most commonly afflicted with repeated AOM's.
You can see what the medical community says about AOM's here:
http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic393.htm
ilovemybaby replied:
Yeah I remember a few times in my life having sore ears from swimming... I just put some cotton wool with vaseline in my ears and kept warm and it went away on its own...
It's funny how we get these ideas in our heads because of other people LOL Like my MILs crazy idea that a child grinding their teeth could be because of worms. I never did listen to her. LOL
MyBrownEyedBoy replied: Actually in children prone to ear infections (like Logan) laying flat on their backs with a bottle or sippy cup can lead to ear infections. It has to do with the way the eustacion tubes drain and how the milk or juice or whatever can back up into the ear canal. I sometimes lay Logan on his back, but I put a pillow under his head to slightly elevate him.
BTW a great way to get water out of your ears after swimming is to put a drop of rubbing alcohol in them. It evaporates the water and then evaporates at your body temperature. I learned that on swim team.
ian'smommy replied: Well in all the research i have done on ear infections and all the talks i've had with ear nose and throat doctors, yes bacteria casued the infection, but an ear infection is not contagious as a cold is. An ear infection can be a result of a cold, but an ear infection itself is not contagious. It is bacteria casued rather than virus caused. With a cold, if you don't blow your nose enough and just sniffle all the time, that can build up fluid by the ears and bateria forms causing the infection. My husband sometimes doesn't blow his nose enough during a cold and has noticed on more than one occasion that his ears start to bother him. I reminded him to blow his nose more and he said it made a difference. in the info. I looked up on the net, sucking motions with a pacifier or sippy sup or whatever, creates more saliva. According to the site I read, that becomes the vehicle for the bacteria to travel. And I want to add, that is why for the common cold it is something that you typically wait out... It's a virus and needs to run it's course. No prescriptions. But an ear infection is not a virus. It's a bacterial infection. It needs to be treated. My son went back the the ENT yesterday to make sure his ears are ok after his recent infection in both ears. One of his ears still has a small amount of fluid back there. So the infection itself is gone but the fluid is still there. A breeding ground for the bacteria. Which in time will cause another infection. When my son had tubes I knew when an ear infection was trying to start. He would have fluid draining from his ears. Becasue that fluid didn't remain in the ears, no infection developed. If the fluid somehow couldn't come out because the tubes were blocked, he would have had an infection.
Anyway... Even though an ear infection is generated by bacteria, that bacteria needs a breeding ground and fluid is that place... That can happen by laying on your back (with young children especially because their tubes ( i don't wan tto attempt to spell it) are shorter and straighter... An easy path for fluid that is taken in even from the mouth. So for us adults, laying flat most likely would not contribute because our tubes are more developed.
Anyway.... please excuse my typos.. I was thinking faster than my fingers could type...  I hope what i said made sense.
ian'smommy replied:
Yes take out the valve. With the valve in it's no wonder he gets frustrated when sitting up and trying to drink from it. It is hard to get it out. So when he is sitting up, give him the sippy without the valve. He will tip it back and with no effort in the sucking department, he will get results. It will be much eaiser to get the drink he wants. Then he won't feel it necessary to lay back and try it. I hope that helps
My2Beauties replied: Yes I have heard this, Hanna had really bad ear infections until she was about 6-8 months old (I can't even remember which one she was when she had her tubes put in ) she was somewhere in there though and her docs and the ENT always told me to not let her lay on her back and drink. Of course I do now because she has tubes in her ears and hasn't had an ear infection since
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