Ear infections

JessAnnJ

DD has a stubborn ear infection and has been on several different antibiotics without it totally clearing. We went and saw a ENT doctor and he recommends tubes but said it is not harmful to her to wait and see if it clears on its on. We are going back to the ENT in a few weeks. I'm just curious if anyone else is dealing with ear infections this winter and if you have tried anything other than antibiotics? At this point I'm ready to try some natural remedies. She broke out in a terrible rash on one of the antibiotics and I don't like that she was on them so long.

Litgirl77

LO had one a while back, and we discovered in the process of treating it that he's allergic to penicillin - he broke out in the whole rash thing too. Ever since, I've been paranoid about him getting another one, and really don't want him on antibiotics if at all possible. 

Anyway, long story short - our doc recommended hydrogen peroxide in his ears to help with wax build up. I researched it a bit and a lot of people say it also helps ward off infections, colds, etc. Ever since then, whenever LO starts getting a cold, I use it as ear drops once or twice a day. He hasn't had an ear infection since. Could totally be coincidence, but I'm sticking with it. 

JessAnnJ

@litgirl77 I almost had a panic attack when I went to get her ready for bed and realized she had a rash all over her chest and back. I'm allergic to a couple antibiotics, same thing just a rash, but seeing it happen to her was very upsetting. I'll look into the hydrogen peroxide.

SingleMom31

We had one.  You could tell something was very much not right, but not what was wrong, so we took her in.  They wouldn't give us anti-biotics (our dr. doesn't hand them out quickly) and said that we could use tylenol to treat the pain if we wanted.  She was pretty miserable for a few days, but it cleared on its own in about a week.  It seems like hot compresses, the vaporizer, etc. all helped some, but it was just a matter of time.

JessAnnJ

She has had an ear infection since the beginning of December. Right now it is only in one ear and doesn't seem to be bothering her. I think it got better but never completely went away. When the ear infection started that was the first time she ever had a fever. Hopefully she doesn't get a high fever again because I know they will want to give her more antibiotics and I'm not sure what I will do then (she's already taken 4 different ones).

SingleMom31

Four seems like a lot. If its not bothering her though, I wonder if it'll go away on its own with time?

kjsmith9

DD had an ear infection when we took her for her well-check last week.  I had no idea... She wasn't symptomatic at all.  We waited a week, took her back in, and it was mostly cleared up.  Our pedi was fine with us skipping the antibiotic, which I was thankful for.  I don't think antibiotics should be handed out the way that a lot of doctors do.

JessAnnJ

SingleMom31 said:

Four seems like a lot. If its not bothering her though, I wonder if it'll go away on its own with time?

Right now we are hoping it will go away on its own. She is not currently on any antibiotics. I would have never given it to her in the first place if it didn't seem to be bothering her or if she just seemed a little sick. When she was prescribed the first one she was very sick. We thought she just had a cold so we didn't take her in at first. She was probably sick for 4 days and we took her in because she started to get a fever and her cough got worse. She had the ear infection and something in her lungs and was wheezing. She was given antibiotics and an inhaler and when we went back in two days her ears had not gotten any better so they switched the antibiotic. About a week after stopping the antibiotic she got very sick again. Her fever kept climbing throughout the day and she was lethargic so we took her in and she had ear infections in both ears (at this point it had been almost 3 weeks since we first took her in). With the high fever I was nervous about skipping the antibiotic. I've never really seen her as sick as she was that day. Two or three days after starting the new antibiotic she developed a rash and was switched to antibiotic # 4. That's how we got to 4 different ones. December was a very long month.

LittleFish1

eghad! Definitly poor kiddo!

Just a thought, friends daughter was having reoccuring ear infections (1.5-2year age range), they decreased the amount of cows milk for a period & it cleared up. Something about cows milk & mucus if I recall. Not sure if that'd help or not.

SingleMom31

Geez. I'm sorry... That sounds horrific. Crossing our fingers for you. :-/