Tis The Season

Yay! Yay! Give a cheer, summer's pretty much here. With summer comes more fun in the sun and that usually involves lots more swimming. With more swimming comes more opportunity to get swimmers ear. I don't want to bum out your pool plans so we are posting our fave Pediatrician, Dr. Deepa Sukumar's swimmer's ear tips for you.

8 Symptoms, Causes and Prevention tips for Swimmer's Ear

• Swimmer's ear is an infection of the outer canal and it is usually caused by bacteria.
• Your child can get swimmer's ear if he/she spends a lot of time in water especially swimming. It can also happen if your child has eczema or excess ear wax.
• Never try to remove ear wax by yourself or try cleaning the ear canal. This may injure the ear canal and cause an infection. Allow a pediatrician do it.
• Most common symptom of swimmer's ear is ear pain that gets worse when the ear lobe is pulled or pressed on. Redness and itching of the ears can occur too. Your child may have some discharge from the ears.
• To prevent swimmers ears a) keep ears as dry as possible while swimming using a bathing cap or ear plugs b) use a towel to dry your ears well after swimming c) gently pull ear lobe in different directions, while the ear is faced down to help drain water out.
• Make sure you do not insert any object into the ear canal including cotton tips swabs and fingers.
• Always consult a doctor if the child has ear pain with or without fever. Pediatrician will prescribe antibiotic and or steroid ear drops for swimmer's ear.
• Make sure your child is completely symptoms free before starting to swim again.

A Mom tip from a friend of mine (who is not a doctor) is if your child is prone to swimmer's ear put a few drops of alcohol in your child's ear after each swim. She did this for her kids and she said they didn't have any problems with swimmer's ear.

For the last three years one of my kids has gotten swimmer's ear every summer. This is the year we decided to put our "stake in the ground" that we will be more proactive so we, too, have a summer with no swimmer's ear!

You can reach out to Dr. Sukumar for any of your pediatric needs - including swimmer's ear - via her telemedicine site: www.gracemdconnect.com. 

#happyswimming #noswimmersear #proactive #pediatrician
#drsukumar #whereisyourangel #summer #funtimes