Ear disease comes in patterns that range from one extreme of RECURRENT ACUTE OTITIS to the other of PERSISTANT Otitis Media with EFFUSION.

Children who demonstrate a pattern of PERSISTANT Otitis Media with EFFUSION = OME = middle ear infections with fluid. These children have an acute infection only half the time, and they just do not clear. On recheck with your physician the ear is not red or inflammed and one antibiotic after another does no good because THIS IS NOT A BACTERIAL INFECTION!!.
This is just trapped fluid which is the result of allergies, like a sinus infection that will not drain.

Or at other times, children with OME may present with just fluid in the ear which refuses to clear and may never have been sick. These are the children with CHRONIC fluid or effusion, often called chronic serous otitis.

Children you should suspect of having allergy include:

l. The child whose fluid persists for over 2 months.

2. The child who has tubes which continually drain.

3. The child with a hole in his ear drum which drains.

4.The child who has failed their school hearing test and has no history of ear infections.