Know the First Aid for Foreign Body in Ear, Nose & Throat - Dr. P Lakshmi Satish | Doctors' Circle

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Dr. Lakshmi Ponnathpur, MS - ENT MBBS | Phone 📞 080 2663 1108 (Online & in-person appointment can be booked online or by call) Consultant ENT Surgeon | Skin, Cosmetic & ENT Care Center, Bangalore, India
Foreign bodies in the ear, nose and throat are very common among toddlers and small children. Small children have the curiosity to explore their various cavities the nose, ear and the throat putting anything and everything in their mouth or nose or in the ear. So whenever a child keeps playing with objects like seeds, beads, crayons, pencil tips, etc. the parents have to be really vigilant because suddenly they can pop something into their ear, nose or throat and they can start crying. A foreign body in the ear is better observed when the child starts getting irritation in the ear and starts poking the ear or points to the mother or the caregiver that child keeps on meddling the ear then the parents must suspect that something must have gone into their ear. If the foreign body has entered the nose by accidental putting by the child then if it is neglected it can lead to foul smelling discharge in a couple of days. So any child who comes with a foul smelling unilateral blood-stained nasal discharge the parents or the caregivers or the teachers should suspect that child must be having a foreign body and immediately they must rush to the doctor. So it is not advisable for the parents to wait till the smelly discharge starts coming if at all they have any suspicion there's no harm in consulting the doctor because earliest it is removed is the best thing for the child because vegetable foreign bodies are hygroscopic they absorb water and every hour they keep increasing in size. So things like peanut, any nuts and seeds they swell up after absorbing water from the nasal secretions and they really swell up and it becomes difficult later on for us to remove in the outpatient setup. Best time for the foreign body to be removed is as soon as it is inserted and the parents it's better for them not to meddle and avoid any trauma to the ear, nose or throat and rush to the nearest ENT facility and get it removed immediately. We as doctors take the child into confidence and we prepare the child and the parents and everybody will be extremely scared we have to calm them down and if it is a nasal foreign body we have to decongest the nose by putting the drops for some time. First we have to see whether the foreign body is there or not and if the secretions are covering and it is a new foreign body we can remove it efficiently in the outpatient setup itself. The caregiver should hold the child properly there is a particular position how they have to hold. One person only can hold the child properly in between their legs and they have to hold a child appropriately with one hand and with another hand they have to stabilize the head then we can safely syringe it out and remove the foreign body from the ear. If it is a nasal foreign body we have good special instruments and with appropriate lighting and after decongesting the nose with one single shot we go past the foreign body and just pull it down so the whole thing comes out in one shot. If it is a ingested foreign body we have to take a correct history whether the child had any choking episode or a coughing episode, whether the child became blue or any such history we have to take. The accidentally ingested foreign body can either enter the food pipe or the windpipe. If it enters the glottic area and it can even cause choking especially like the nuts and seeds and the shells of the peanuts are extremely dangerous if the child accidentally ingests and it goats and sits on the glottis it can even cause complete choking and we can even lose the child. So immediately the caregiver has to reverse the child hold the child upside down and pat nicely on the back so that the child coughs up and to some extent they can retrieve the foreign body and the child will cough it out. If not you have to rush to the emergency hospital immediately and get treated adequately. Sometimes a very simple small foreign body can go past like a tiny little piece of of pebble or a seed if it is accidentally swallowed not to worry it can pass through the narrowest part called the cricopharynx and it go into the stomach after bypassing the narrowest part then it will pass off in motion in the next couple of days.
#earnosethroat
#entsurgeon
#child
#cough
#choking
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