Risk of feeding baby in lying posture

Avoid bottle-feeding a baby who is lying down because it causes ear infections, doctors have warned.

According to the doctors, this is a common habit, mostly at night, when the mothers or guardians are asleep.

“I’m concerned because of late, I’m seeing many children who are brought to the hospital with painful ear infections,” Walter Otieno, a paediatrician who practises in western Kenya, said. Some of his patients are only weeks old.

He told the Nation on Thursday that ear infection in under six-month-olds is mostly bottle-feeding or breastfeeding while lying down. The affected mothers have owned up to practising the unsafe habit.

SAFETY

Dr Otieno explained that babies have little openings from the back of their throats to their ears called Eustachian tubes, which are shorter, wider and flatter.

“When you feed your baby in a lying position, the liquid pools in the back of the mouth. The liquid can then go back up into the ears through the Eustachian tube, causing inflammation in the tube,” the doctor said.

“This is bad because bacteria can enter through the tube into the ear and cause an ear infection.”

Paediatric infectious disease specialist Joan Robinson says rarely do children have fluid draining from their ears. This fluid could contain germs hence causing infection.

“The best way to handle a baby while feeding is to carry her, feed her, then let the baby rest, it takes five minutes at most,” she says.

ANTIBIOTICS

Another problem with ear infections in children is that most doctors treat them with antibiotics, which is unnecessary.

An updated statement by the Canadian Paediatric Society released last year recommended the use of a watchful waiting approach before launching antibiotic use for an ear infection.

“In practical terms, if your child has a painful ear or a fever he or she may not really need antibiotics or even benefit from them.

"Like many childhood illnesses, most ear infections are caused by viruses and do not respond to antibiotic treatment,” the statement reads.

“The diagnosis of an ear infection can be incorrect and some are caused by viruses rather than bacteria,” Dr Robinson said, adding that "some types of bacterial infections are likely to go away without antibiotics because the immune system alone is adequate”.

Symptoms include unexplained fever, difficulty sleeping and overall irritability.

Prolonged ear infections can cause hearing loss. Hearing loss in a baby can make it harder for her to speak and learn.