Case Study in Integrative Medicine: Jared C, A Child With Recurrent Otitis Media and Upper Respiratory Illness

The following is the second in a series of case studies from the multidisciplinary integrative medicine practice at the Beth Israel Center for Health and Healing in New York City. This case, that of a child with recurrent upper respiratory illness and otitis media, originally published in the text Integrative Medicine: Principles for Practice¹ illustrates some of the possibilities inherent in the integrative approach to health and illness, particularly applied to pediatrics. Our hope is that these cases will illustrate how the diverse voices of the various healing arts that compose the integrative healthcare team can come together in a given case to offer an approach to treatment much more powerful than that which any of the disciplines can provide on their own. Of course, the manner in which these cases were handled by our team represents only one of the many ways in which these patients' problems could have been effectively treated. Because we view the patient and/or the family as the primary decision maker on the healthcare team, our choices for therapies and approaches in these cases were guided in large measure by the patient's and their family's previous experience, personal preferences, and intuition, as well as by our clinical experience and knowledge of the evidence. Different people presenting with these same sets of problems could very well have been treated in dramatically different ways in each of these scenarios and still with potential benefit.