What do you do for an infant earache?

Question

Pulling at the ear, Alot of fussyness.

Answer 1

Take them either to the ER or the Pediatrcian's office immediately. The ear drum can rupture if this goes untreated...so get off the computer and take the baby now! My son suffered 13 ear infections before he was 1 yrs old, thus resulting in speech problems, plus he had to have tubes to allow proper drainage.

Depending on your baby's age it, teething and ear infections run together along with sinus drainage...get to the doctor please!!!

Answer 2

"Antibiotics are contraindicated"? He must be a physician in the UK.

With an infant there is no way to know, without looking (with an otoscope) if the ear is infected or if this is just fluid build up or irritation from teething or whatever.

Infection should be treated with antibiotics. An untreated ear infection can cause the eardrum to perforate and eventually this can cause hearing loss. Also, untreated ear infection can become mastoiditis (although I've only seen this happen in third world countries... and England... where even repeated ear infections are not being properly treated at all times with antibiotics.)

Until the baby can be seen by a qualified physician or physician's assistant, you can use Tylenol to reduce pain and sweet oil drops in the ear. Both are available at your local pharmacy.

Fluid build-up in the ear does not need to be treated with antibiotics. Some infants have a problem with fluid building up (then draining - not staying long enough to breed infection) and for these infants, if this problem repeats frequently, you might consider tubes (grommets) for the eardrum. Children who have constant fluid in their ears will have a conductive hearing loss that might affect speech development.

Bottom line is take the child to be seen by a qualified professional to determine if a course of antibiotics will be required to alleviate the discomfort.

Answer 3

I have 3 small children and I recommend you go to the doctor. Earache is one of those things that can get bad pretty quickly. I have used garlic - puncture the capsule and put a drop in the ear - seems to help with pain.

Answer 4

HI!

I know there are drops and medicines, But I have something that is really old. THose type of things seem to work the best. I am 54 years old and suffered with my eears alot when I was little and we were poor and could not go to the doctor. My dad would blow smoke in my ear. (he did not smoke either!!) he would get a cigar or cigarette from someone and blow smoke in the ear. I have no idea why, but it worked.

Answer 5

Baby tylenol or ibuprofen, follow the dosage instructions on the bottle. However it is really important that you take him/her to the doctor to be checked out for an ear infection because ear infections, especially that early in life, can permanently damage your hearing and even cause partial deafness. I'm not trying to scare you, but it's true.

Answer 6

try a warm hair dryer that always worked for me. although there is probably an ear infection present which is very painful for infants, you might want to get some anitbiotics from the peditrician..

Answer 7

There are ear drops such as Auralgan that contain an anesthetic. Antibiotics are contraindicated.

Answer 8

a drop of sweet oil or blow smoke in ear & place a cotton swab in it

Answer 9

TLC