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.
