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Ear
Infections
Few pains
are more excruciating to a young child than an earache. After
the common cold, an ear infection is the most frequent
childhood illness and three out of four children will
experience an ear infection by their third birthday.
The ear
has three parts: the outer ear, middle ear and inner ear, Rice
explains. The outer ear, which collects sound, includes the
part outside the head and the ear canal. At the end of the ear
canal is the eardrum, a small circle of tissue about the size
of a fingertip. Behind the eardrum is the middle ear, which is
normally filled with air. When the eardrum vibrates, tiny
bones in the middle ear transmit the sound to the inner ear,
where nerves relay sound signals to the brain.
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