By Ahmed Ajikobi
Nursing mothers have been warned against supine breast feeding position to prevent their babies from getting ear infections
Supine breast feeding is when a mother breast feeds the babyย while lying down or in sleeping position.
A medical expert, Dr Ayodele Osasona, issued the warning during a chat with newsmen in Ilorin, at the weekend.
He also advised patients suffering from ear ailments to consult Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist for proper care and attention.
Osasona, a doctor in the ENT department of the General Hospital, Ilorin, notedย that there are different types of diseases that could affect the ear.
He said that anyone of the diseases needed urgent care to prevent complications which could lead to total ear deformity.
โThe inflammation of the middle ear, known as Otitis Media, is of different types, namely acute otitis media, otitis media with effusion, chronic suppurative otitis media.
โThe Otitis Media has to do with inflammatory process of the middle ear and it occurs for less than three months, but becomes Chronic Suppurative Otitis Media when it last for more than three months.
โIt could come with partial deafness, as the patient will have some pains, noise sensation, upper respiratory tract infections.
โThe Acute Otitis Media occurs when there is perforation of the ear drum, with discharge of pulse from the middle ear to the outside part of the ear.
โIt will take less than 12 weeks duration to know if it is Acute or Chronic Otitis Media,โโ the medical expert said.
According to Osasona, ear disease becomes complicated when there is pus discharge from the ear, which can move to the brain and lead to meningitis, earring loss, cerebral abscess, encephalitis and so on.
He listed some signs and symptoms of the disease to be cough, catarrh, fever, tiredness, ear pain, vertigo, urging that patients treat upper respiratory tract infections as soon as these symptoms are presented.
He advised patients to access healthcare services with ENT specialists for any of these symptoms, adding that patients could be placed on antibiotics and analgesic or aural wick dressing with eardrop in case of Acute Otitis Media.
