Ear infections

[carriek38]

Oi, so I had done the garlic oil drops before I dropped DD at DC this morning, but she refused to keep cotton in. I picked her up today & she had a GREAT day. Her behavior was better, she wasn't clingy w/ me when we did spaghetti dinner & caroling in the evening, said her ear doesn't hurt, etc., but it did drain all kinds of nastiness throughout the day. Who knows...I can bring her to urgent care if needed over the weekend, but hopefully I won't need to.

[Kiliki]

I had ear aches all the time growing up. We were poor. We had no ins. A couple times I rmbr, my ear swelled pretty much shut. My parents had no idea about natural remedies. I suffered Th rough it. Spent some time shivering on the couch with fever. It always cleared up. Don't have any hearing issues. I got abx probably twice. Same thing w.other illnesses. I am pretty certain I have had some bad sicknesses in my yrs. Rarely ever had abx. It is possible to recover from illness w.o abx. Not at all fun, but it is certainly possible. I think abx are overrated.

[mcpforever]

Do you think her eardrum ruptured? Or was the nastiness just earwax that the oil cleaned out?

[carriek38]

Originally Posted by Kiliki I had ear aches all the time growing up. We were poor. We had no ins. A couple times I rmbr, my ear swelled pretty much shut. My parents had no idea about natural remedies. I suffered Th rough it. Spent some time shivering on the couch with fever. It always cleared up. Don't have any hearing issues. I got abx probably twice. Same thing w.other illnesses. I am pretty certain I have had some bad sicknesses in my yrs. Rarely ever had abx. It is possible to recover from illness w.o abx. Not at all fun, but it is certainly possible. I think abx are overrated.

I had lots of ear infections growing up as well, lots of rounds of abx. I never had any problems, either. But in general, I figure that I have a good job, good insurance, if my kid needs to go to the doctor, she can. There's no reason for her to suffer needlessly. Any other time, I'd have taken her to the pedi in a heartbeat. But DP & I both missed some work when DD was sick last week (doctor said "just a cold"), one of the days b/c DD put on such a good "pitifully sick" act (& I hated the sitter & was happy to minimize the time DD spent there) & I fell for it, & DD was struggling w/ the DC transition, so I didn't want to let her "play" me.

And, of DD's half sibs that we know (4 + 2 more recent babies), at least two of them had some hearing loss secondary to ear infections by 18 mos. That's why I'm a little paranoid about it. I'm worried that since it hasn't been an issue, I won't recognize an infection & that there will be negative outcomes.

Originally Posted by mcpforever Do you think her eardrum ruptured? Or was the nastiness just earwax that the oil cleaned out?

98% sure it was earwax...I think she may have had some fluid, possibly some mild infection, but she's not having any pain or hearing difficulty.