My 10 month old has yet another ear infection.?
Question:
How does the infection causing bacteria enter the inner ear?
How are the infections and repeated ear infections prevented (besides tubes).
Besides the antibiotic and tylenol or motrin, how do you help heal the infection, and ease their discomfort?
He is in day care so he is exposed to germs, but I did breastfeed him for 7 months. How do we prevent another ear infection after this one is healed?
Answers:
No they are not contagious, your child's ears do not have the capability to drain on their own so the result is a multitude of ear infections . The bacteria enters through fluids entering the ear , and subsequently cause infection. Prevention would be ear plugs at bath time, and swimming. My Gran daughter had countless earaches until we had tubes put in. If you do not control the problem, your child will continue to suffer the earaches as well as high temps. Is there a valid reason why you do not wish to put the tubes in? They are very helpful to a child who's ears cannot drain properly, actually they are a necessity. I am also in the medical field and I research ALOT, so I hope this is helpful to you. Otherwise all you can do is treat the symptoms and let your child suffer the pain and high temps. I could not bear it with my Gran daughter. She ran a high temp almost every other week as her ears would once again become infected. This went on for a year before I put my foot down and demanded her parents do something about it....She has been earache free since but you must keep the ears dry(ear plugs) until the tubes fall out on their own...
Nope they are not contagious,it's cause is puss build-up and germs.Kids just get it.He'll outgrow it.They might want to put the plugs in his ears to help with the draining of the fluid.
Swimmer's ear is common, from getting water into the ear, where bacteria can then grow.
First, make sure that when you bathe him, that you keep the water out of his ears. If you get water in him, pour a little solution of vinegar and rubbing alcohol in there, then tip it out.
Second, never let him lie down with a bottle. The fluid can get into ears by way of sinus cavities, if they drink while lying down.
You can place a couple of drops of warm olive oil into the sore ears, then a cotton ball. The heat eases pain. A small warm pillow will also help.
Poor baby! Earaches suck!
Sounds like me. When I was a kid, I had an infection every few months. I remember being in pain all the time. I have a large inner ear canal that connects to the throat. Every time I had a slight infection in my throat, it shot directly up to my ear. I had to have both my tonsils and adenoids taken out before it stopped.
I know doctors don't like to remove those now-a-days, but it might be worth talking to your pediatrician about it.
Your ears, nose, and throat are ALL connected.
The poor thing... They hurt bad enough as a full grown adult, much less a baby.
Get him to an Ear Nost Throat Specialist, cause he may need to have tubes put in, depending on the frequency and sevarity of the infections.
Be carefull not to be TOO carefull with him as far as germs go.
Studies have shown that too LITTLE exposure to germs can be every bit as dangerous as too MUCH, because the immune system has no practice on defending itself.
The only time you should use anything antibacterial (germ-x stuff) is after serious dirtying, or if there's someone in the house with a really contaigous bug.
Try asking about the swimmers ear drops with chammomiele (SP?).
Make sure you ask his doc first, as I'm not sure if they're ok for babies.
I sure hope he feels better, I know how miserable they are...
Sheena
Oh- I lived it with both my kids. This is what I learned, it may help you.
Prevention:
-You can try ear massages to help drain the fluid. There are actual techniques you can find on the Internet.
- I also read chiropractors have a very good rate of prevention. There was only one actual study, but it showed a result of 40% of the children w/chronic infections not getting an ear infection during the study.
-My favorite, which helped my son the most was adding xylitol to his juice 2 or 3 times a day. You have to be careful it does cause loose stools. This is based on very well documented studies. They were based on chewing gum with xylitol, but I used the sugar since my son was too young to chew gum. I KNOW that prevented some of the infections.
-Now, the very best one is the EarPopper. It is FDA approved, but you have to have a prescription and it is very expensive. Something like $300. My son outgrew his ear infections (I think, we will see this year) without having to resort to tubes. If he starts up with them again I will buy anEarPopper. I noticed you can get them on Ebay (without a script) and although it says they will check to make sure you have the proper credentials as a medical facility, it is just a disclaimer. I have bought medical equipment off Ebay before and it was mentioned that they have to put that disclaimer on by law.
Comfort
-Get the doc. to prescribe anthesitizing drops. They really help with the pain.
-There is also an otc medicine by Simialsan, it helped my son a few times.
-Heading pad against the ear helps some.
BTW, the bacteria gets in through tubes with the drainage from the sinuses. It is when it gets blocked that it begins to build up to an infection. Also, tubes are not the cure all that they are touted to be. My daughter still got ear infections with the tubes and studies show they do not help as much as once thought. Also, who wants to put their kid under general anethesia if they can prevent it?
Good luck.
P.S. Water in the ear is not going to cause this kind of infection (that is an outer ear infection). My daughter did get an outer ear infection once when I tried garlic oil (suggested for pain relief)
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