According to the American Chiropractic Association, acute ear infections are the number one reason kids go to the doctor. Now, a manipulation method from the past gives parents and children an alternative option for fighting those infections.

The sounds of childhood were often missed by 5-year-old Joshua Banks. Allergies and recurrent ear infections affected his hearing. Standard treatments didn't help.

"The tubes would fall out, and then they'd have to have more surgery, have to have tubes placed, and you were on a downward spiral of surgery and tubes, and the child still had the allergies, and the allergies were not treated," Joshua's mother, Elaine, tells Ivanhoe.

Elaine was not willing to let Joshua miss out on his childhood. He needed verbal and social skills to thrive, so she enrolled him in a study at Oklahoma State University. There, pediatrician Miriam Mills, M.D., performs a series of osteopathic manipulations on Josh that start at the hip and work their way up to the head.

"Part of why he has problems with draining is that the base of his skull, where the venous drainage all drains out, is compressed and irritated and tight," Dr. Mills, of Young People's Clinic/Oklahoma State University in Tulsa, tells Ivanhoe.

Joshua showed improvement after the very first treatment. He no longer needs antibiotics. Dr. Mills credits this hands-on approach. She says: "I think my criteria for using antibiotics or for sending somebody for surgery are the same as they always were. It's just that I just don't seem to have the same need to do these things."

They're results that are exciting for parents, too.

Elaine says: "I have a child that can communicate, that has his whole demeanor has changed. He's happy. He doesn't have that frustration." And Joshua no longer dreads his doctor's appointments.

Joshua now has his treatments just once a month and has been free of tubes and antibiotics since the treatment began. His mom says he's only had one infection in the last year and a half.

　　From Healthy.net