By the way . . . wacky ways to keep ear pain at bay

AS a child I fondly remember being offered sweets as the plane took off for holidays. My brothers and I would try to blag as many as we could, not realising it was a tactical manoeuvre to help protect our ears from cabin pressure. But this little trick has long gone from our skies, a consequence of austerity measures and possibly health and safety due to the risk of choking.

If you have ever experienced pain in the ear caused by cabin pressure, you can fully understand why kids bawl their eyes out as planes come in to land.

You feel like your head is going to explode and there is nothing that can stop it. Maternal instinct is to shove a bottle in their mouths and keep a low profile for fear of other passengers.

If your kids are beyond the milk stage, you can offer sweets, sing, stroke, rock, and reassure them, but really the only soother is a soft landing.

So how come the ears cause so much pain on planes? Well, we can’t actually blame the ear, the culprit here is the Eustachian tube. This tiny tube connects the middle ear to the back of the nose and throat. Its job is to equalise pressure on either side of the eardrum.

When this tube doesn’t function correctly, air pressure inside the drum drops and it gets pushed inwards. As well as hurting, it can also impact hearing.

So what do you do? Chewing gum, sucking sweets or blowing the nose can all help but sometimes the tube just won’t open and you have to grin and bear it until you hit the tarmac.

Try not to fly with a respiratory infection or a bad allergy. Some travellers benefit from taking decongestants pre flight. The pill version needs to be taken two to three hours pre-landing, with nasal sprays about an hour.

One final and seemingly crazy remedy is to blow up a balloon. The pressure required to inflate a balloon may help your discomfort. It will keep the kids entertained, but I’m not sure about other passengers!