Ruptured Eardrum

[chimomma]

My 12 mo old son's eardrum ruptured a couple nights ago. He was screaming and in the morning I noticed drainage and then again today. Yesterday I put some breastmilk in it with out really think much of it, but now I am wondering if I should have.

What is the course of action I should take here? Do I need to see a doctor right away? Is there anything they would do except look at it and then tell me to come back later to see if it heals? I will probably plan to make an apointment for a week from now or so. I am not bathing him (just wiping him off with wash cloth) in an effort to keep water out of his ear, any other percausions I should take or things I could do to try to prevent infection? Would it be helpful to stay away from large groups of children until it heals?

[sbgrace]

A rupture should help the ear drain and pain go away. Is he better? If not I'd think there is infection in the other and I'd want to see someone. How long has it been infected? The wait and see is 24 to 72 hours. After that the prudent thing to do is get help (antibiotics) as uncomplicated ear infections will be better in that time frame.

Avoid putting anything in the ruptured ear. That includes the breastmilk. (we all do stuff before we know better...don't stress).

[chimomma]

I'm not sure how long he has had the infection for. He has been normal, but my husband did tell me the night before he thought he looked sick because of a wrinkle near his eyes. (?) and he was slightly warm. Not sure how long he was like that though. He had not had his ears examined. He's had ear infections in the past with out it affecting his behavior. He just woke in the middle of the night inconsolable for a few hours, then I got him to relax and sleep. I noticed the drainage after he awoke. Since then he has been back to behaving normally like he was before the screaming night.

Last time when I took him to the nurse practitioner with an ear infection, she just gave us a prescription for antibiotics and told us to fill it only if he started becoming bothered or sick. I agree with this course of treatment and generally agree with the idea of just not treating ear infections, letting them go away on their own. But if they get to this point of rupturing that would concern me.

Ear infections have been common for my children. My old pedi put my daughter on antibiotics 4 times for ear infection before the age of 18 mo. I don't really want to repeat that with my son. I am now reading into the possibility of food allergies playing a role in chronic ear infections and may try figuring out if they have an underlying allergy.

[SquishyKitty]

I have had a ruptured eardrum, and I would recommend you get him some pain relief. It hurts so bad, I will never forget how that feels.

I would get him looked at, just to make sure it's not infected.

[ASusan]

I ruptured mine about a year ago.

Will he hold still for you to hold warm compresses to it? There may still be fluid build-up in there and the compress will help draw it out, and provide some pain relief.

[chimomma]

how long did the pain last? right now with him, he doesn't seem bothered at all. It obviosly hurt while it happened. Do youthink it would still hurt after two to three days?

[lguse]

I just want to add, that stuff coming out of the ear is not necessarily a ruptured eardrum. DD has had stuff come out of her ear twice and it was wax that had come out while she had a fever. Or so my doctor told me. Definitely not a rupture though.

[AustinMom]

My son had multiple ear infections and two ruptured ear drums before he was 12 mo old. After developing an allergy to penecillin, we decided to go the wholistic route for ear infections.

If it is ruptured, don't worry, I would though go to pediatrician to have them check it out. Don't put anything in the ear if it is ruptured. If he has future infections, you can put 2 drops of garlic oil in the ear with 2 drops of echinacea.

We stated an echinacea supplement for our LO. 1/4 the adult dosage everyday for 8 weeks, then two weeks off. After repeating once, we went to every other week of a daily dosage. He has NEVER had an ear infection since and it's been almost a year now. Echinacea has been studied to build up the immune system to fight off cold, flus and other ailments that usually cause ear inefections due to drainage.

HTH!

[Purple*Lotus]

When mine ruptured I had to have surgery to skin graft it. This was 20 years ago, so maybe a lot has changed. I remember being in a lot of pain so I would give some pain relief for it

[KMK_Mama]

My daughter's ear drum ruptured a few weeks ago. I had no idea it could happen so fast. She woke me up at 4am and told me her cheek hurt and in the morning around 10 she said her ear hurt. I made her an appt for 2 and her ear drum ruptured about 2 hours before her appt. We opted for antibiotics. It drained for about 7-9 days. She said most of the pain went away when it ruptured.