Ask the Expert
Using items that block the ear canal — such as hearing aides, headphones or earplugs — can also increase the chance of injury to the canal, along with the chance of an infection. You should see your
health care provider if you think you have an infection of the ear canal. You can be treated at home in most cases. A liquid antibiotic that can be dropped into the ear canal is used to treat swimmer’s ear. You should see an
improvement within three days of starting treatment, with symptoms resolved by day seven. If this is not the case, contact your health care provider. It’s best to try to reduce the risk of swimmer’s ear in the fi rst place. Pay attention to the saying “Nothing smaller than your elbow should go into your ear,” which means there is no need to clean the ear canal with fi ngers, towels, cotton- tip swabs or other objects. T e ear canal cleans itself. Also, keep your ears
as dry as possible, drying them thoroughly after showering or swimming. If you are involved in sports
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that get water into the ear, it’s important to shake the ear dry after swimming, to wear earplugs, or to blowdry the ear canal after water exposure. Use a low heat setting and hold the blowdryer 12 inches away from the ear opening. Also, remove hearing aides and earplugs nightly, and clean them regularly.
My 12-year-old son has put on too much weight. How can I help him?
T ere is a lot of infor- mation out there about obesity and overweight children. Before you start to make major changes or even comment on your son’s weight increase, you should contact your health care provider to determine
Many factors need to be
considered when determining if a child is overweight, including genetics, and developmental and environmental infl uences
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