Ear Infection Question

Go see Dr. Pram in Faifield, CT. She is a highly qualified naturopathic doctor with a LOT of experience. She has helped me with my son Will and ear infections. Check it out at:www.drpram.com
If you can try not to use antibiotics at all. Take Care!

Have you looked into ear coning? It is a non-evasive therapy without medications or surgery. Do a computer search to learn about. I wish I had known about it when my son was younger. The poor kid had been thru so many surgeries!

I hope this was helpful,
G.

IF you go to a natural food store and get the Gaia brand Ear Oil, I have had great success with it soothing ear pain and clearing up ear infections (thankfully with two kids I've only ever had an ear infection once). However, we do not use antibiotics at all and once you've started using them repeatedly, your body doesn't have as good of a response on its own, so often times its hard to make a switch from heavy duty drugs like antibiotics to natural remedies. You definately should invest in a good probiotic. Primal Defense for kids is a high quality one, sounds like removing all pasteurized and homogenized dairy (probably best to go off it completely for 2-3 months, then slowly introduce back in some yogurt and raw cheddar and see how your child does). Or try goat's milk which is less allergenic after an initial 3 month dairy free phase and probiotics. The other natural remedy I have used for my own ear infections, because I too used to have tons as a child and have a hard time clearing up infections with just herbs, is colloidial silver- the brand Sovereign Silver is good- it is a "natural" anti-microbial liquid silver that NASA uses to disinfect their water, and its tasteless and odorless and works great. Also cleared up a bout of conjunctivitis!

According to my pediatrician she says that many dr's over prescribe for ear infections. Ear infections are a lot of the time viral which antibiotics cant help anyway! When my kids ears are just red we wait it out & see if any symptoms get worse. 99.9% of the time their ears are perfect in a week. Redness or even some pus is ok. She says that once the kids are 2yo & older the meds can we waited on. Maybe all those antibiotics are killing the good bacteria. I know that taking probiotics is very beneficial for your entire body. They make a childrens type but make sure u get the refrigerated kind. Ive been told that it helps ear infections as well. Ive never had a chance to try it since my kids are rarely sick. There's also colostrum which our pediatric chiro recommends. I also use the Auro over the counter homeopathic ear relief.

I have an 18 month old. Took her to a pediatric chiropractor and took her off dairy. She has been doing amazingly. I was scared at first but now she loves getting adjusted and she is laughing more, talking etc. No runny nose, and no more fluid in her ears.

My neice almost had tubes put in her ears until she my sister found this chiropractor. That's what lead me to start doing the same for my daughter. The chiropractor is sweet, gentle and wonderful.

If you want to give it a try, email me for his number.
He has an office in Manhattan.

hi E.,

chances are, your son's ears aren't clearing the fluid completely from one infection to the next. or, if they are, he's just more prone. make this blend of essential oils:

10 drops douglas fir
5 drops eucalyptus radiata (not globulus)
5 drops magnolia flower
mix into 1 oz. sweet almond oil for your base.

apply to the following acupoints:
LI4: the highest point of the bulge of muscle on the dorsum of your hand formed when you squeeze the thumb to the index finger. so you're on the dorsum of the hand, between the 1st and 2nd metacarpal bones, approximately in the middle of the 2nd metacarpal bone. this is the master point for the head, most ppl know it as the "headache" point.

Lu3: on the medial aspect of the upper arm, 3 thumb-widths (your son's thumb) below the end of the armpit fold, on the radial side of the biceps muscle. the point lies between the biceps and the humerus bone. this point allows us to let go.

Du23: the midpoint of 1 thumb-width into your son's hairline just above his forehead. again, your son's thumb is the measurement for his body. this allows for draining downward.

massage a drop or 2 of the mixture into each of the spots twice daily, 3 days on, 3 days off (so in 3 days he should get 6 treatments and then he goes without treatment for 3 days) for 18 days total. note, LI4 and Lu3 are bilateral. only Du23 has 1 single point on the midline of the hairline.

my son just had back to back ear infections and i asked his pediatrician in many different ways about how to drain the fluid from the ears... the basic response was you either don't drain the fluid and just wait til the fluid gets infected or you put in these tubes. this is when i went to see my chinese herbalist (a master) in chinatown and he prescribed that formula above. it worked like a charm!

like the other responses, i also agree to get a strong probiotic (one that has 10-12 billion count... jarro makes a good one). you should also use florastor which promotes good yeast growth to keep "bad" bacteria in check. after my son was on 2 rounds of antibiotics (ugh!!) he came down with claustridium difficile infection... basically, it's a bacteria that exists in some ppl's guts but bcs there are other good bacteria to keep it in check you don't get symptoms of toxicity of c.diff. but since he was on all those antibiotics, the good bacteria was abolished, leaving c. diff to flourish. my son had terrible cramps and diarrhea for a week. the western treatment for c. diff is yet another antibiotic which, for obvious reasons, did not appeal to me. so my husband and i are aggressively treating the infection with probiotics and he's been diarrhea free for 5 days.

lastly, keep him off dairy for now: no cow's or goat's milk, no cheese. yogurt is different. substitute unsweetened almond milk until he gets through this and clear's up. "almond breeze" makes an unsweetened almond milk. keep sweets out of his diet as much as possible, they produce more fluids (dampness) in the body.

good luck!

K.

Hi E.,
My daughter had her first double ear infection at the age of 3 months...We never even would have known except for the fact that she spiked an extremely high fever in the middle of the night...we took her to the ER, and after taking one look in her ears they said the ear infection was the culprit....needless to say she had 6 more infections before I took her to a very reputible ENT doctor....after lengthy discussions with him, my husband and I decided to have the tubes put in....She had them put in March of last year and hasnt had an ear infection since...I just took her for her 2 year checkup and the tubes are still in place....I have to say that even though I was very weary of doing the tubes it was the best thing I ever did....I had tried many other things before deciding on the tubes and for my daughter nothing worked....even as far as antibiotics only 2 or 3 would really get rid of the ear infection....Working in the medical profession I can tell you that being on multiple antibiotics is not healthy and there bodies can build up an immunity to them....if they need them in the future the chances of them working are slim....I can give you my docs info if you are interested....let me know!! Hope I was of help!!
Meg :)

I would seriously consider taking your child off of all dairy products. They are hightly mucous producing and often contribute to ear infections. Also, if you can get a recommendation for a good chiropractor who has a lot of experience with kids that could be very helpful as well.