I've only taken a child to the doctor for an ear infection once. When Logan was a year old (plus or minus some months) I asked the dr. to take a look at his ears because he was unusually cranky and had been playing with his ear. The dr. looked at me and said something very similar to, "You just have a cranky baby." When I re-mentioned the ear-touching he said something like, "He is discovering something fun and flappy on his body."
For this reason I have never taken a child to the dr. for displaying ear-infection symptoms (and I wait until I know they are really sick to take them in for any other reason, as well). Good thing our dr. friends have told us just to give babies tylenol and wait the ear infection out. So far it has worked.
Today Ammon is unusually cranky and he keeps tugging on his ears.
6 comments:
I just read your blog post and have to share a thought . . . Sadie has been tugging on her ears the past two weeks and I suspected a possible ear infection. This isn't something we have a lot of experience with at our house, so I looked it up online. All I was reading/found said that tugging/pulling ears at this age often means the baby is teething and that babies can't locate pain very well at this stage. Sadie is definitely teething and got her first two teeth this week. Your blog post made me wonder if maybe Ammon is teething too?
my sister got permanant ear damage from an untreated and then misdiagnosed ear infection.
also, your new blog format looks super cool.
We are on the other side of the boat too--the 20% of ear infections that don't go away by themselves. When Eldon was little we'd go through weeks of one infection that multiple antibiotics couldn't fix and then the fluid would remain for months even after the infection was gone. Eldon hears like he is under water. He has had 3 sets of tubes and the ENT is contemplating a 4th even though Eldon is 5 years old. The fluid doesn't drain and his hearing is impaired until the doctor cuts a tiny whole in his eardrum to let the fluid out. We get ear infections almost every time we get a cold. Ears have been one of the toughest things. It has been nice lately though because Eldon can tell me exactly how he is feeling and where the pain is located unlike a baby.
From my experience, teething can cause pain up to their ears, a fever up to about 101 degrees.. Any higher, and he probably has an ear infection. You can put fresh aloe vera into their ears for an ear infection. Our midwife always recommended it (23 years experience and a nursing degree). Worked for us. Also, there's herbal treatments~ a good garlic tincture can work really well, which you could probably find at Sprouts or any nutritional store. Both aloe and garlic have high antibiotic/antiviral properties. You could try an herbal immune booster to help them fight it off on their own. If you use antibiotics, follow up with a probiotic (anything with live cultures will help, like yogurt) to help build back up a balance of good bacteria in the body.
If he's sensitive to dairy, which causes more mucus, that could contribute to recurrent ear infections.
But yeah, they can cause serious permanent damage, so I'd be careful. If your pediatrician doesn't follow up on your concerns, especially something like that where he just needs to look in his ears, he's not doing his job!!
hope all is well <3
Just to throw in my two cents...Jon doesn't give antibiotics for ear infections on our kids unless they are REALLY sick. Or if they are in a critical language developing time and he is worried about hearing. Otherwise, we like to let their immune systems do their jobs. And he is at least ALMOST an ent, right? :)
Of course, I think there is always a story about the exception to the rule. (Like Molly's sister.) So I guess my conclusion is - whatever we do (antibiotics or no) our kids will probably grow up just fine despite our mistakes/successes.
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