My 2 1/2 yr old has chronic ear infections . Medicine isn't helping any suggestions?

Question

She takes allergy med's daily. We do not smoke, have no pets, and she wears ear plugs and a head band in the bath tub. She has taken every kind of antibotic you can name, along with shots, ear drops, and 5 different kinds of allergy medicine. We have seen our pedictian who refered us to a ENT who has put in two sets of tubes, and removed her adnoids. The ENT then referred us to childrens hosp, which only changed her med's. Any help ?

Answer 1

Stop giving her any milk or milk-related products. It's making too much mucus, clogging her head, and creating infections.

"The most common allergens implicated in ear infection are cow’s milk and dairy products, wheat, eggs, chocolate, citrus, corn, soy, peanuts or other nuts, shellfish, sugar, and yeast. Dairy is the number one contributor to childhood ear problems"
http://www.healthychild.com/ear-infections-alternatives.htm

Answer 2

There's not much you can do. Maybe he needs a break from all the antibotics. Some ear infections are just ear aches. As a kid I got LOTS of them, about 3-4 every winter and I never took antibiotics for it. Next time he gets ear pain, give him some tylonal and wait about 3 days. If in 3 days it hasn't stopped or he gets a fever of 101 then go to the doctor. If his ear hurts and there is no fever it's just an ear ache and no meds are needed but pain releif. Keep his head (ears) dry as possible do not let him go outside in the cold with wet hair.

Answer 3

My son also had very bad ear infections, and his cousin had the tubes that you described.

Try starting out with a de-humidifier. We found that his problems with his ears went away when we moved inland from the coast. the climate is much, much drier here and it seems to have cured the problem (1 year so far). It sounds like you are avioding hot-tubs and swimming pools, which is good, but in humid environments you may not be able to avoid the moisture. I wouldn't suggest that you move from where you live but if there is a repetitive chronic infection and she isn't immunocomprimised (already sick with something else) I would guess that it might be environmental. Please keep trying everything that you can to fix her up!!

Answer 4

Make sure she takes the appropriate amount of medication based on her weight as well as her age, and change types if she has been on that one awhile. I had a doctor actually admit his mistake about the weight and mg of dose for my son not being correct. He wasn't getting enough of the antibiotic to work based on his weight. Also had the same problem your going through right now. When he was a baby, up to about 6 years when we had to have tubes removed, and then the ear drums wouldn't close up, due to the constant infection. We eventually had to replace both ear drums surgically. My son had a 90% hearing loss in both ears by that time. It's not a pleasant surgery or time in his or our lives, and they only did one ear drum at a time. Then several months later did the other. My advice is keep track of med's, amount of dose, and time given, and do what the ENT suggest. If you have to rely on any one else giving a dose of medication, make sure you can trust them. If you doubt the ENT's expertise in this situation, see another. The surgery is something I wish we could have avoided for my son's sake. It created years of agonizing trouble with his attitude with doctors and needles too. His hearing is fine now, he's grown, but every time he gets a cold or sinuses we get worried. When ever a doctor see him for the first time, they think his ear drums are about to rupture. You always have to explain it to the GP's. Good luck, I'll be thinking of your daughter!

Answer 5

Does your child have a compromised immune system? Has she taken acidophilus? Antibiotics kill the good bacteria as the bad in your body. Her immune system seems very low. Get her on a good quality of acidophilus (needs to be refrigerated).
Avoid stress and give her extra love and positive attention, Avoid yelling around her, which you probably do not do at all. Maybe the ear infections are viral instead of bacterial and then an antibiotic does not help. Avoid for a while sugar and products which sugar like juuices as every infection thrives on sugar. Try Oil of Oregano as Oil of Oregano is anti- bacterial, anti- viral, anti- fungal. Take the Oil of Oregano internally and massage around the ear. Feeeeels so good. Use Eucalyptus on her pillow or half an onion to clean the ear. Try to steam to open up the sinuses Use super foods for your child to increase her immune system, like walnuts, kefir, blue berries (vegetables and fruit in general). For allergies use lots of Vitamin C like 1000 mg every hour for a child times 4. And again avoid stress and focus on health not on sickness, visualize your child better and do the visualization together in a fun way. When you get in a positive mode you will also be able to find the right solutions for her much easier.

Answer 6

Try taking her off all dairy! The protein (casein) in milk irritates the immune system in many people. It is responsible for many conditions like recurrent ear infections in early life, eczema, chronic bronchitis, asthma and sinusitis. Commercial milk contains residues from hormones, chemicals, and drugs.(used to keep dairy cows producing abundantly)Not good for anyone! In nature, animals only drink milk in infancy! Try Rice Dream, Soy milk ,or DariFree. You would have to provide other sources of protein. As for calcium, there are other choices,such as green vegetables, oatmeal, brown rice,eggs and fish etc.Good luck!

Answer 7

I have no good suggestions other than making sure she takes a good childrens mulitvitamin. I would suggest switching your home to all natural cleaning and laundry products though to ge the toxic chemicals out of the home. When you do switch them do not put them into your regular trash as they need to be take to a toxic waste recycling plant. Many are considered registered pesticides. Also you may want to consider dabbing tea trea oil on a cotton ball and putting this in her ears at night for a while to see if this helps.

Answer 8

You may want to seek cranio-sacral therapy. A registered massage therapist who is knowledgeable in cranio-sacral therapy may be able to address the physical shape of the bones around the ear and tube area and may be able to relieve the problem with a gentle treatment. I have heard of good results on young children, just make sure the person is reputable and has more than just the beginner courses in cranio sacral. Hope this helps.

Answer 9

EDIT__PLEASE REREAD AS I WAS WORKING ON IT GRADUALLY ADDING MORE STUFF AND YOU MAY HAVE NOT READ IT ALL IF YOU READ IMMEDIATELY

http://www.google.com/custom?domains=curezone.com&sitesearch=curezone.com&client=pub-0846790371736460&forid=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&cof=GALT%3A%23008000%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23336699%3BVLC%3A663399%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BLBGC%3A336699%3BALC%3A0000FF%3BLC%3A0000FF%3BT%3A000000%3BGFNT%3A0000FF%3BGIMP%3A0000FF%3BFORID%3A1%3B&hl=en&q=ear+infections

ok this first link is not working..just go to curexone,.com and type ear infections in both searches (one in forum and one at top of page)--this is one of the best websites I know..


http://www.healthychild.com/database/ear_infections_alternative_solutions.htm

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/ (forum with great support and answers--all kinds of parenting concerns)


http://answers.yahoo.com/search/search_result?p=ear+infections+alternative the colloidal silver that the best answer of the first question suggests is a good alternative.

I like her idea about the shower and essential oil but be sure it is real essential oils ..get them only at a health store or health coop..or be sure they say 100% essential oils..try putting oregano oil in a vaporizer and a drop in oil and put in ear. Have her lie on her side holding a warm cloth over her ear for a little while. Even putting a mullein ear formula (herbpharm makes one adding a few drops of garlic oil might help as garlic kills infections and this way it isn't too strong.

Answer 10

My girlfriend has great luck taking her child to a chiropractor. Her child was miserable all the time, had 3 sets of tubes put in and nothing ever helped. Once she took him to the chiropractor, the ear infections went away.