A 6-year-old male patient with history of ear infection and fluid as well from large tonsils, had tubes put in when he was two that have since fallen out [45:40]. Gluten and dairy-free has not resulted in symptom improvement. Difficult to breathe through nose. Right ear hearing diminished significantly in the past month. Otolaryngologist said this is a conduction loss due to fluid presence and lack of drainage. Would like to put in tubes again to surgically reduce the size of the adenoids. Do you have any recommendations?

Chris: Yes. Diet. So, many of these cases, I know I talked about this before on a podcast, and I’m just searching. So yes, there’s one from 2014, ​How to Prevent and Treat Recurring Ear Infections without Antibiotics​. It’s not referring to this exact scenario, but it definitely is referring to this general picture. With ear infections in kids and adults for that matter, but especially in kids, you really have to look at the whole train. What are the other things that they’re eating? Is it gluten and dairy-free? I know a lot of kids who are on a gluten and dairy-free diet where they’re just eating tons of other kinds of flour and sugar products, lots of gluten-free bread or gluten-free crackers or cookies or lots of granola, sweetened soy yogurt, all kinds of that stuff. It’s gluten and dairy-free and that’s good maybe, but if there is still a lot of sugar and a lot of flour and refined foods, breakfast cereals and things like that, it’s still going to be problematic.