How to treat children's ear, nose and throat problems
Primastuti Handayani, The Jakarta Post, Singapore
Four year old "Andy" is playing with his friends when suddenly his nose begins to bleed. His babysitter, who has no knowledge of what to do in a simple medical emergency, quickly tells him to lie on his back to avoid more bleeding.
Apparently, what she did was wrong.
Dr. Lau Chee Chong, a consulting ear, nose and throat specialist at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, said that such action would never stop the bleeding.
"Laying a child on its back during a nose bleed won't stop the bleeding itself. Instead, the blood will go backwards and be swallowed by the child," he said while discussing ear, nose and throat problems in children. The topic was one of those discussed recently during the hospital's 15th seminar focusing on obstructive sleep disorders.
"If a child has a bleeding nose, simply tell them to bend forward and breathe through the mouth for several seconds. In the meantime, ask them to pinch the soft part of the nose, not the bony part, while breathing. Wait until the bleeding stops. If it doesn't stop right away, repeat the procedure several times."
Lau also urged parents not to panic, as they usually do when a child's nose is bleeding
"Panic won't help. Besides that, I also call on them not to insert tissue paper into the child's nose. Mothers usually do that."
To stop nose bleeding, Lau also suggested mothers put Vaseline on the soft part of the nose and pinch it several times for a few seconds.
Besides nose bleeds, another common complaint is finding foreign objects, like insects, in the ear.
Lau gave the example of a patient who had a bee fly into their ear.
"Actually it is very easy to overcome the problem. Live insects should be drowned and immobilized with olive oil before removal."
If it can't be taken out of the ear, then the patient must undergo minor surgery.
"We managed to take out the bee part by part, starting with its legs, abdomen and head," he said to laughs from the seminar participants.
Although having a bee in a child's ear is not funny at all, Lau said it was caused by having "very clean" ears, which no longer have a filter to prevent insects from entering.
"Ears have self-cleaning mechanisms in the external acoustic meatus. Thus there is no need at all to clean our ears. Otherwise, we can accidentally remove the filter."
Lau said ear trauma could occur due to slapping, falling or even cleaning the ears with cotton buds.
"Therefore, it is very important to know what to do and what not to do when it comes to your children's ears."