I've never tried the ear drops but I really like hyland's products - especially their teething tablets.
Just a suggestion, but maybe you can put the drops on a cotton ball and then set the cotton ball on the outer ear instead of right in the ear. I've heard of people putting a couple garlic oil or extract drops on cotton balls then setting them right in the outer ear area. I've never tried it and I don't know how to use it according to age but maybe you can look further into that.
Also, my dd rarely got ear infections but the rare times that she did, I found that it occurred after I tried cleaning her ears with cutips - and I didn't even go all the way in the ear...
Hope this helps. Good luck.