How to Determine at Home If Your Child Has an Ear Infection

How many times has your baby or young child been cranky, pulling on their ear, inconsolable, or running a low grade temperature? And how many times does many of these symptoms appear in the middle of the night or early morning hours leaving you with the important decisions of, "Do you send them to school/daycare?" "Do you go to work or stay home with them?" "Do you call the doctor and try to squeeze an appointment out of an already busy schedule?" Or is your child susceptible to chronic ear infections? Innovia Medical is a company which develops and markets new products to health care providers and parents to assist them in early and accurate detection of ear infections. Their latest product is the "EarCheck," which in keeping with many other home testing products like those digital or ear thermometers and products to listen to your baby's heartbeat while pregnant, can provide children and parents with some measure of comfort in pursing appropriate care for their children and taking some of the guesswork out of when to pursue medical treatment.

According to the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders, "Three out of 4 children experience ear infection (otitis media) by the time they are 3 years old." Additional statistics by the National Center for Health Statistics indicates that ear infections are the most common diagnosis by pediatricians, that " Children under 15 accounted for 24.5 million more visits to the physician's office, or an increase of 81 percent office visits for the diagnosis and treatment of otitis media." Almost half of all children experience at least one year infection before they reach the age of one and of those approximately 1/4^th of those infections are recurrent episodes of infections.