Teen son has two ruptured eardrums

[raisingknights]

A little background: My 16.5 yo son had lots of ear infections when he was little. I didn't figure out that dairy was an issue for my children until I had #3. My oldest refuses to eliminate dairy though because he seems to believe that he outgrew that a long time ago. He hasn't really had any symptoms to make me believe otherwise. Since making lots of changes in our diet many years ago, my oldest hasn't gotten sick very often. But in the past 6 months or so, he has had four ear infections with three ruptures. The first time, he started out with a cold, woke up with an earache and within hours, it ruptured, so we went to the urgent care and he was prescribed oral antibiotics. The next ear infection did not rupture, so no trip to the dr. (I do not run to the doctor for ear infections any more, since they usually resolve within 48 hrs. We treat at home with warm olive oil/garlic, warm compresses, and acetaminophen for pain. Along with saline nasal spray, vitamin C, and hot tea with honey for the congestion/cold.) 

Now: He and his brothers caught a super nasty virus that's going around. Sat. morning, he woke up with an earache and asked me to put olive oil drops in his ear. By noon, his ear ruptured. My dh took him to the urgent care and they prescribed an oral antibiotic, antibiotic ear drops, and Claritin-D because they said he "probably" has allergies. We didn't get the ear drops because it seemed to me to be too many meds. The next morning, he woke up with an earache in the other ear and it also ruptured within a few hours. 

He has an appt. tomorrow with our family dr. to follow-up and I plan on getting a second opinion on the RX meds. My biggest concern is WHAT is causing him to have so many ear infections at this age, especially since they are rupturing so quickly. I'm fairly certain that our dr. won't be able to help with that. I'm already planning on taking my 11yo to an allergist soon, so I may have to have both of them tested. I'm considering talking to an osteopath also because we don't have any naturopaths that I know of. 

I've been researching this from several angles:

Allergies

Poor posture (dr. told him it was probably causing his occasional headaches)

iPod & loud music habit (I've read about bacteria on the ear buds)

Uses cell phone regularly, mostly texting, but also talks daily and sleeps with it near his pillow at night

Fragile eardrums due to recurrent infections as toddler

We moved into new house about 10 months ago

Has anyone else experienced something similar? I really don't even know where to start with this, other than take him off of dairy, take away his iPod (necessary for his eardrums to heal anyway), and tighten up on our diet (we've been slacking and eating fast food more than we should).

Just FYI: We are homeschoolers and non-smokers.

Thanks for any responses!

[Marsupialmom]

I would encourage you to dump the ear buds and get wipes for his head phones.

Also, has your son just gone or going through a major growth spurt?  When my son's did his immune system went haywire during his last major growth spurt.