Children's Ear, Nose and Throat

Total ENT Care for Children

Don’t let ear infections, sinus issues or speech delays slow your child down. Visit Sanford Children’s for comprehensive pediatric ear, nose and throat care.

Children often need special ENT care as their senses develop. Our ENT specialists can treat a variety of complex disorders. We treat inherited health issues, delays, infections and other ENT complications to protect your child’s hearing, sense of smell, voice and more.

For physicians: Refer a patient to Sanford Health.

Ear and Hearing Care

Children use hearing every day to learn, play and communicate. Don’t let hearing loss or ear damage hold your child back.

We treat:

• Balance issues

• Eardrum perforations

• Hearing loss

• Repeated ear infections

If your child suffers from ear infections, our trained ENT specialists can help. Ear infections are caused by fluid buildup in the middle ear, often occurring as the child is recovering from a cold. Infections cause fever, intense pain in the ear and affect sleep. In children over 6 months, the infections usually go away on their own. Your doctor may prescribe medication to help manage your child’s ear pain. Children under 6 months will be given antibiotics to fight the infection.

Talk to your pediatrician if your child gets repeated ear infections. Our surgeons can help by surgically inserting small tubes into the ear to drain fluid from the middle ear. These ear tubes help prevent ear infections. The surgery is safe and fast, typically lasting 15 minutes under general anesthesia. Ask your doctor if your child is a candidate for surgery.

Nose and Sinus Care

Issues of the nose or sinuses affect two vital functions: breathing and sleep. Sanford Children’s will help relieve the misery of nose and sinus conditions for your child. 

Our ENT services treat and prevent:

• Allergies

• Sinus problems

• Sleep issues (such as snoring or sleep apnea)

Throat and Voice Care

Find the full scope of care for speech conditions at Sanford Children’s. We help find the cause of speech delays in children and treat voice and throat disorders. Our surgeons can fix issues with your child’s mouth, throat or neck structure through reconstructive surgeries. We can treat certain conditions with medications or speech therapies. No matter the cause of your child’s speech condition, Sanford Children’s ENT specialists can help.

We provide care for:

• Breathing difficulties, including conditions requiring surgical airway reconstruction

• Long-term problems with a child’s tonsils or adenoids

• Speech delays

• Swallowing problems

• Voice conditions

Make sure your child is hitting the language milestones for his or her age group by using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s milestone tracker.

Other ENT Conditions

Our ENT specialists can help with any issues affecting your child’s ears, nose or throat. These issues include:

• Birthmarks or vascular anomalies

• Cleft lip and palate

• Congenital disabilities affecting breathing

• ENT injuries

Sanford Health is recognized as having South Dakota’s first and only cleft palate team certified under the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association (ACPA) and Cleft Palate Foundation. 

Find an ENT specialist or location near you.