New to the site, wondering about severe ear infection

[mamx2]

My 5 year old has an ear infection, it is leaking milky, creamy fluid constantly, and even pouring down his neck. Behind his ear is swollen and red as well, he has had a fever on and off over the last few days and threw up in the middle of the night two nights in a row. he is also showing signs of stiffness in his neck, but I can't tell if he just can't turn his head because his ear hurts so bad or if it is because he is just unable to make the muscles move properly. What I am getting too is, do I have reason to believe that he could contract meningitis or has already contracted it?

[sydlou]

I'm not sure about menigitis momma, but it could be a burst eardrum. I know a number one thing with that is leaking fluid.

Have you brought him to the dr yet?

[chattyprincess]

it could have been an abcess on the ear drum as well that has burst...I second the question has he gone to see the doc yet? they can give him some drops to put into his ear to numb the pain. He sounds like he is fairly miserable at the moment poor kid :(. ( i totally offer sympathy dd has an ear infection going right now!)

[Irishmommy]

Welcome to Mothering! I have moved this to Health and Healing for more responses for you!

[sbgrace]

Well, I see that this is old and given those symptoms my guess is you're already seen by a medical person.

The swelling behind the ear could be mastoiditis..my son had that. Meningitis can be the next step for mastoiditis so I'd say yes and this sounds emergency like to me.

That said, I'm nearly certain that this has already been handled by this point and I hope you'll post back when he's healed!

My son did IV antibiotics in the hospital and surgery. He was on IV antibiotics at home for about a month post release from the hospital as well but he responded so well to the surgery that we didn't have to go home with a port and he just did antibiotics by mouth at home.

I'm guessing your child is going to be on antibiotics and possibly the powerful type my son was so if you want any input about probiotics or follow up on any intestinal effects let me know. We did have to treat my son for bacterial overgrowth after all that. He's c. diff positive now.

[haydensmeem]

Originally Posted by sbgrace 

I'm guessing your child is going to be on antibiotics and possibly the powerful type my son was so if you want any input about probiotics or follow up on any intestinal effects let me know. We did have to treat my son for bacterial overgrowth after all that. He's c. diff positive now.
 

Can you tell me a bit about this?  How did you recognize the bacterial growth?  We've had several rounds with ear stuff and antibiotics and I'm never sure if I'm doing enough to try to get things back to normal afterward. Thanks!
 

[sbgrace]

Originally Posted by haydensmeem 

Originally Posted by sbgrace 

I'm guessing your child is going to be on antibiotics and possibly the powerful type my son was so if you want any input about probiotics or follow up on any intestinal effects let me know. We did have to treat my son for bacterial overgrowth after all that. He's c. diff positive now.
 

Can you tell me a bit about this?  How did you recognize the bacterial growth?  We've had several rounds with ear stuff and antibiotics and I'm never sure if I'm doing enough to try to get things back to normal afterward. Thanks!
 

My son had multiple extremely smelly/foul loose stools a day (as in every time he ate anything). In his case there was no doubt we had an issue! But this was after IV antibiotics (with no probiotics as he was npo for days waiting on surgery and we couldn't give him anything by mouth). After IV antibitoics for two weeks in the hospital he was home on antibiotics for a month. So this was heavy duty stuff. The hospital and his pediatrician cultured but no one could figure out what was going on as the "bugs" the cultures typically look for weren't our culprit.



We ended up needing to do the metametrix stool and urine tests to figure out what my son had and what would kill it. But a lot of times you can do something general and get yourself back to a normal point (like P73 oregano oil and heavy duty probiotics). Bacteria is much easier to deal with (generally..with a few exceptions) than yeast. But I am starting to think that's because yeast is related to other issues that need addressed first while bacteria is literally "catching something nasty" and you just need to kill it.

In the past when we had milder overgrowths that were easier to treat I saw milder things. This website has information about symptoms of either yeast or bacteria that I think might be helpful for you to read. http://www.enzymestuff.com/conditionbacteria.htm

If you did probiotics regularly during those ear infection treatments you may be ok. It really does make a difference.