Toddlers: 24 Months+
Milk and ear infections
Has anyone taken their child off of milk/dairy because of recurrent ear infections? I am getting mixed ideas on whether the milk is exacerbating Lily's ear infection situation (11 in 10.5 months). Her doctor says milk isn't any issue, but everyone I know who is more alternatively minded (including a friend who is an accupuncturist) insist otherwise.
I am just looking for any personal experiences. Lily LOVES her milk so it would be a major, major thing to take it away.
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Re: Milk and ear infections
Rated "L" For Life Blog
Coming off dairy didn't help our situation. I was on a strict dairy free diet while bfing DS when he was younger (and he had no dairy either) because he seemed to have gas/fussiness problems when I was consuming dairy (DH is actually casein intolerant). He went to daycare at 6 months and had 5 infections within 5 months. After the tubes went in at 11 months--no problems at all--1 infection in the year since they've been in. DS started drinking vanilla soy milk just shortly after the tubes went in. He eats some dairy now with limited problems but still drinks just vanilla soy.
I have heard about the dairy link with the ear infections. If you really want to try to avoid the tubes, then avoiding dairy for awhile can't hurt. I'd slowly transition the real milk to soy (a little in the cup mixed together, gradually increasing) and see what happens.
I will say, however, that tubes were the best thing we could do for DS. When we had a hearing test done prior to the tubes, he was already showing some hearing loss due to the fluid behind the ear and it could have affected his speech learning. We caught it in time.
You know I'm like you. 12 or so ear infections in 10 months. I took DS out of daycare the day our ENT said lets put tubes and remove his adenoids. I also stopped milk, yogurt and limit cheese. We've been ear infection free since that day, 7 weeks ago. My pedi, swears milk is a contributing factor. I asked our ENT last week about milk and he said it could be it affects 5% of kids.
I would say it wouldn't hurt to try if you she loves milk so much I would wean her slowly. Unfortunately it didn't help for my DD. We went to soy milk, rice milk, we took away all stuffed toys and disinfect all toys 2x daily, and many other things but nothing worked she was having ear infections and tonsil infections on a weekly basis. She finally had one infection that even after antibiotic shots wouldn't get better. We tried all allergy meds safe for kids her age because many ear infections are from allergy drainage.
Then I got so frustrated I demanded that she see an ENT and allergist. The allergist was first and he said she had no allergies. Then the ENT said her tonsils were so big they were blocking her ears from draining and with so much fluid sitting there there was reoccurring ear infections. He said we could wait to do tonsil and adenoids and just do tubes but that seemed like a bandaid to fix the problem. SO we had them all removed at once to save her from having to have multiple surgeries. It was the hardest but best decision we ever made! She eats much better now and is finally putting on weight, she hasn't been sick since and that was the 2nd weeks of April. It is a record for her knock on wood
The ENT also said that they are the biggest tonsils he has ever seen, the size little golf balls and he is surprised she ate all.
SO the point of my long story is that you have to just trust your gut and don't be afraid to challenge the dr if you think it is necessary. I wish I had demanded the allergy and ENT visit earlier and not let him keep putting me off. I was afraid of tubes because I have read so many articles about how they are so overdone and I read about what a child should exhibit to need them. So I felt better going into it. Also to believe for so long that I had an allergy ridden child and giving her meds that helped but didn't fix the problem
Good Luck it is such a difficult thing when your child is always sick!
Carter James