Ear Infections??

[Shirale]

Hi all,
any of you have any experiance w/ ear infections?Amira has hd a cold for 10 days and on fri morning when I got her out of her crib I noticed thatb she felt very hot and when I took her temp it was 102.5 so I called the Dr. brought her in and she has an ear infection. We started her on antibiotics but she is still feverish (we've been giving her tylenol) last night it was over 103...now she is just miserable...won't sleep, eat or drink....and on top of that when the Ped weighed her she is less than she was 2 months ago- now 18 and a half lbs at a year...so any advice? How do I get her to eat, take away the pain w/o overdoing the tylenol...??Last night she would only sleep if one of us was holding her so I took the first half of the night and DH thesecond...Help!

[Rachels]

One of my friends swears by the homeopathic earache stuff. Hyland's and Boiron both make a version, I think. I would focus more on hydration than food. Her appetite will return when she feels better. I remember warm compresses feeling good when I had earaches as a child. Poor baby!!!
-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[ddmarsh]

I unfortunately have lots of experience with these, all 3 of my sons have had multiple infections and all 3 ended up with tubes (which worked miracles in our case). I found the spiked fevers to be terribly scary at first, it's quite a shock to realize how high they can get "just" from an ear infection. I always give them Tylenol/Motrin at every available dosage time for the first couple of days and then once the antibiotic kicks in lessen it a great deal.

Hope it's better soon -

Debbie

[sntm]

Do y'all remember the weird old home remedies for ear infections? My grandmother used to put warm sweet oil in our ears or blow cigarette smoke (yuck) in them. I can't really recommend either, but thought they were interesting.

Try the warm compresses and placing a little bit of cotton in the outer portion of her ear -- sometimes the play of air against the eardrum can hurt. Don't worry about too much tylenol -- as long as you follow the directions, you'll be fine. Hope she feels better!


shannon
not-even-pregnant-yet-overachiever
trying-to-conceive :)
PREGNANT! EDD 6/9/03

[Melanie]

Ds had an ear infection for months...the antibiotics never seemed to fully eradicate it, just make it stronger. It finally (knock on wood!) went away with the shots of antibiotics. I recommend taking probiotics at the same time (but not within 2 hours of the antibiotics or they will countereffect the pros.) it will help sustain your child's immune system and prevent (or help with) the yeasty diaper rashes. Ds was suseptible to other illnesses while on the antiobiotics. Maybe she would only sleep while being held b/c of the semi-upright position? Does she still have an infant seat to sleep in?

I can't help with the fever, as Ds never had one, but I know fevers are supposed to be the bodies way of fighting an illness, so low-grade are not harmful.

Poor little one...I hope she's better soon.



Mommy to Jonah

[Shirale]

Thanks for the ideas- I may try to infant seat idea- she is too tall to use it in the car but isn't really too big for it...she sleeps as long as one of us is holding her, wakes up screaming every once in a while...and is generally miseable, but the fever seems to have gone down, it was up to 103 at points...poor baby. anyhow- thanks for the support!