Ear infection help please..

[RainCoastMama]

We hosted DD's party at one of those indoor places and she caught a horrible virus - high fever for a week (!) of 103 degrees and now an ear infection. Nasty. We are trying to avoid antibi's and don't want to keep dosing her with Motrin. Any help from people who've BTDT? Thanks.. :

[LuckyMommaToo]

Your poor DD! I like this website's info:
http://www.drgreene.com/21_768.html
I can speak from experience that ear infections are really painful. So I would focus on pain management.
Hope she feels better soon!
-e

[mimiharshe]

Have you tried a pediatric chiropractor? They can at least help their immune system fight off the infection if there is a subluxation (misalignment). When dd got ear infections once, we had her adjusted a couple times that week (she needed it) and they had some ear drops w/garlic and other things as well to help. It's worth a shot, right?

[**guest**]

olive oil drops in her ear, room temperature. might help. dd likes them.

[BurgundyElephant]

I second the olive oil ear drops. We have some willow/garlic oil drops that work well, too.

[RainCoastMama]

Thank you thank you thank you! My mother used to use oil in the ear when we were kids and I forgot about it. The chiro sounds very interesting...

[mimiharshe]

i promise it can help

[straighthaircurly]

Smart to skip the antibio. Most ear infections clear up in the same time frame with or without antibio so pain management is the short term key. And sounds like other people have more ideas than me on that.

For helping it clear up more quickly and to help prevent a recurrence, I have to strongly recommend the chiropractor. When my son had to be in day care, he started having continuous ear infections for 7 months before we got smart. After he was recommended for tubes I realized I had to try a chiro. Two visits and he was all set. We go back for an adjustment every 3 months and he hasn't had any problems for the last 2 years. Cuts down on the overall number and severity of colds too. The latest studies strongly favor chiro over antibiotics when it comes to ear infections.

[KMK_Mama]

I'm no help I guess because as a Mom to children with chronic ear infections who eventually got tubes, I would get the antibiotics. :

My Mom had permanent ear damage that lead to deafness from what they think was chronic untreated ear infections as a child.

Ear infections are so painful! I would get it treated ASAP. All of my kids have gone to the chiropractor since they were 4 days old and the chiropractor never helped.

[*clementine*]

Originally Posted by mimiharshe

Have you tried a pediatric chiropractor? They can at least help their immune system fight off the infection if there is a subluxation (misalignment). When dd got ear infections once, we had her adjusted a couple times that week (she needed it) and they had some ear drops w/garlic and other things as well to help. It's worth a shot, right?

Oh. That's exacally what I was going to say.
It's worth more than a shot-it was our SALVATION.
When Ariah was little she had an ear infection every stinking month for most of her babyhood.
They'd put her on an antibiotic (she'd scream and run high fevers.) She'd get diarriah from the antibiotic and a yeast infection and we went round and round so caught in this cycle. I was a very young single mom and didn't have any idea what to do. The doctor had her scheduled for surgery (tubes) and I was so sick over it.
Someone suggested I take her to a chiropracter and they actually made me go. I don't think I would have followed through with just the suggestion-I thought it was a totally dumb idea.
She gave Ariah ear oil with garlic and did adjustments on her. SHE LITERALLY NEVER HAD ANOTHER EAR INFECTION AFTER THAT IN HER WHOLE LIFE. She didn't have to have the surgery. Our problem disappered. We langished for I'd say 8 months with continual ear infections only to never have another one. The doctor was stunned.
Four kids later I've used just the garlic oil on them (not the chiro.) and I've gotten each and every ear infection to clear up-usually within 1-3 days. I don't know if the chiro adjustments worked or not, but our blessing was that she gave us the oil!
The stuff stinks though and runs out of their ears and down their little necks, so beware.
In fact.....I've got a jar of Mullein Garlic compound by Herb Pharm sitting right next to me right now!!!!

[RainCoastMama]

That's amazing information - that you all so much :

We took DD to a walk-in clinic and lucked into a European doctor who said that they never give antibi's in Europe for ear infections and that by simply clearing the nose/sinuses of congestion, you can eliminate the pain. He went on to complain about the overuse of antibi's in North America and that it's 'defensive medicine' in case you had that one child in 100 with complications.

ANYWAY- here's what we did that worked: Otrivin (nasal decongestant spray in child dosage) and Motrin for pain management, hot cloths on the ear, warm olive oil drizzled into it. We also used Hyland's homeopathic earahce tablets which I SWEAR helped the pain almost immediately and put her to sleep - she slept all the way to the doctor, throughout, and all the way home.

I didn't have a chance to get garlic oil BUT that AND manuka honey are my next purchases.

Update - just had an 'emergency aromatherapy' visit - my nanny's friend is an aromatherapist and we called her over for the heck of it. She brought a lotion infused with, among other things, Oil of Oregano to put on DD's feet and chest, and said that Oil of Poplar - more $$ than garlic - was tremendously effective as well.

D

[katallen]

Ear infections are extremely painful and if they are the type that need antibiotics they will go on being painful for quite a while until her body can fight it off. I suggest not being stingy with the motrin if she seems to be in pain and making sure you have a doctor monitor it to be sure it is going down. They can also give you some ear drops that go straight into the ear and help to numb the pain if her ear drum isn't ruptured.

The last time I had an ear infection it was an inner and outer one and I didn't go to the doctor until the pain meds didn't work and by that time the ear canal was almost swollen shut and my ear drum had burst but couldn't drain; and all of that took less than a week so make sure you know how bad it is getting and be open to antibiotics if the other things aren't working. There is no point in her suffering just so you can be proud of not using medicine.

[Vixenmama]

hey thanks for posting the euro treatment...here's my .02

we went out of town last Monday, ds immediately broke out with conjunctivitis.

I tried breast milk, but it wasn't quick enough for me (they're eyes!!)
I went to the urgent care and they diagnosed double ear infections as well as the conjunctivitis---this must have been malingering for more than a month.
He had upper respirtory issues as well. We ended up on antibiotics, and I'm
not a person who medicates quickly or often.

All that to say that if the infection doesn't abate rather quickly, you might want to consider the ab's. I like how your prescribed treatment sounds, and when ds is through with the ab's I'll switch to that, and then start that immediately the next time something like this is nascent.

My problem was that his infection was super full blown and well established
before it was diagnosed.

[RainCoastMama]

Oh, just to clarify and I should have put this in my original post, I'm not anti-antibi's, but DD had just finished a round 2 weeks earlier from another really bad cold infection, and that was one of the main reasons that we didn't want to go for another round. In fact, we left the same doc with a script in hand 'just in case' and had a follow up apt today with our regular doc, and another next week to check her ear progress. I have good doctors and I'm not reflexively anti-allopathic medicine. At least not when it comes to my kids.

BTW she's doing fine and the infection is abating, although still a little red in there.