Super Kids And Babies

Frequent ear infections - even some colds - can leave a fluid buildup that specialists long feared would reduce hearing and slow language and other learning. However, it now shows the hearing loss is too short-lived and mild to interfere with learning, at least in the vast common of children.

“Children are basically pretty resilient and can withstand ... that little amount of problem,” said study leader Dr. Jack L. Paradise, a pediatrician at the University of Pittsburgh.

This was first exposed true at age 3 by the same team of Pittsburgh-based researchers in 2001. Their later research found the same thing true into early school age. In 2004, specialized groups eased the guidelines that had long dictated fast surgery to clear accumulated fluid.

Implanting ear tubes in most toddlers with frequent infections will make no dissimilarity in their learning or behavior through primary school, according to a study challenging one big reason for these common procedures.

The Pittsburgh group now makes the equal finding for ages 9-11 in a government-funded study of 391 children. The work was being available Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“People were always worried: Are there late effects?” said Dr. Stephen Berman, a University of Colorado pediatrician who wrote an accompanying editorial. He said this study is “very, very supportive” that there aren’t.

Berman believes tens of thousands of surgeries could now be measured unnecessary each year. However, a minority of children with severe hearing loss will remain applicants for the surgery. Also, many tubes are implanted to cut down on the infections themselves, rather than fluid. They can lessen pain, and that justification remains valid.

The study was backed by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and drug makers GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer.

AP