(Provided photo)

With the holiday vacation week approaching, parents have been flying up to me asking me if there’s anything I can to do to reduce their child’s ear discomfort when they are on an airplane.

Let me take off on that topic and provide some information.

When a plane flies into the air, air pressure inside the plane’s passenger cabin decreases. When a plane descends, the air pressure increases.

Although airline cabins are designed to not have passengers feel significant pressure changes in their ears, sometimes they can and still do occur.

This pressure can be equalized or reduced between the outside and inside of the ear by opening the tube between the ear drum and the back of the nose.

That popping sensation you sometimes hear or feel in your ears as the plane is landing often means that the tube has opened and pressure that has built up is relieved or normalized.

How do you open that tube between the ear and the nose to reduce the pain of built-up air pressure on the ears?

Here are some suggestions:

1. Have your child drink lots of fluids during the flight — swallowing keeps the tube between the ear and the nose open and equalizes pressures constantly, so ear pressure does not build up.

2. If your child is an infant, breast or bottle feed your infant if they wake up and appear upset or crying while the plane is going up or coming down. Many infants never show signs of discomfort going up or down in a plane, so this may not be necessary if your infant is sound asleep.

3. If your child is over three, chewing gum keeps the muscles in those tubes open like swallowing repeatedly. Use of earplugs will also prevent the outside increased pressure in the cabin from pushing against your ear drum if your children are willing to keep ear plugs in their ears.

4. Another idea is to try to have your child yawn frequently if they can. Often watching someone else yawn will make your child yawn too.

5. If the ear pain after a flight is not better within a few hours, it is worthwhile to check with your child’s doctor to make sure that there is not something else like an ear infection occurring or to prescribe other medicines that may help.

Hopefully, tips like these will make your concerns about flying and ear pain be ear today and gone tomorrow the next time you and your children plan to take a flight.

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Lewis First, MD, is Chief of Pediatrics at The University of Vermont Children’s Hospital and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine. You can also Catch “First with Kids” weekly on WOKO 98.9FM and NBC5.