Constant ear infections and zero sleep....advice please!

[clurina32]

Hi mums - not sure if this should be in the sleep section, but the root of the problem is the fact that my 18 month old is currently suffering from her 4th ear infection of the last few months. I am slowly morphing into a zombie mum as i'm hardly getting any sleep - she tends to wake hourly from midnight when she has the infections. Its worse than the newborn days :(
I feel like this has been going on for months and months. I just want her to get better. I've searched on here and seen lots of people saying grommets saved the day. When I asked the doctor if there was anything that could be done about it he said it's just her 'weak spot' and just printed off another prescription of antibiotic.

I am at my wits end and finding it very hard to cope on so little sleep. She has always been a bad sleeper anyway. Guess I maybe just want to hear from parents who have had similar issues with their little ones and whether they grew out of getting ear infections and what you did to improve sleep for everyone (!)

thanks

[Chillyegg]

Id go see another gp!
My sympathy my dd is slightly older yhan yours and its a night mare

[Rubyslippers7780]

My 18 month old the same! Sending sympathy.
I miss sleep.

[Zisterhood]

Hi could she have glue ear? My dd was the same at that age. No speech problems but doc decided to send her for hearing test. To my absolute shock she failed. she then went into hospital to have grommets put in. The ear infections did stop and hearing was improved.

[clurina32]

Hi all and thank you so much for your replies. Yes glue ear was mentioned, but the doctor at the time didn't think she had it. Annoyingly we always seem to see different doctors at our surgery. Surely there's an issue if she keeps getting them? She is always touching her ears, looks pale and washed out. She is also teething pretty badly too and her canines are coming through. Its all going on.

Shes almost at the end of this round of antibiotics but is still waking up so frequently at night. Before, once the drugs kicked in, her sleeping improved a bit (maybe one/two wake ups instead of 4!) I just don't know what to do, because I want to comfort her if shes in pain, but I dont know if its habit creeping in now as she knows I come to her when she cries?

[Witchend]

This is going to sound competitive illness, but 4 infections in a few months is really not that bad.
Ds had ear infections every 10 days from aged about 10 weeks until he had grommets in at 20 months.
He got his second set of grommets after 8 burst ear drums in as many weeks.

He's pretty much, but not entirely grown out of them now he's 9yo, but jury's out at present whether he'll need a fourth set of grommets. I would regard 4 ear infections in a few months as fairly standard for him-that's him having grown mostly out of them.

What I would do in your situation is: Book an appointment for about 1-2 weeks after the antibiotics finish and ask them to check it's cleared. If it hasn't ask if you can be referred to ENT. They may well say she isn't bad enough-I think it's 8 infections in 4 months is the minimum round here.

You may find that she reacts to the antibiotics and they give her tummy ache-ds had that. Some of them he was better with and some he was worse, but he couldn't always have the same one so he had to put up.

His cycle before the first set of grommets was approximately:
Day 1: Temperature big ear infection, start of antibiotics. No sleep
Day 2: Still very miserable. Dosing only on top of me
Day 3: improvement in ear pain. Sleeps better, perhaps only waking 1-2 times.
Day 4-6: tummy ache from antibiotics, maybe diarrhea, very unsettled at night
Day 7: End of antibiotics. Still in pain from tummy
Day 8: No tummy ache, no ear pain. Sleep through.
Day 9: getting a bit miserable again by the evening: Unsettled at night.
Day 10: Definitely going downhill again.

[clurina32]

Hi Witchend - my god your poor son, that sounds truly awful.

Yes, she's only been diagnosed as having 4 but it feels like she's been ill the whole time with no breaks in between. She always looks sick and her sleeping is constantly bad, but has got much worse in recent weeks.

I will definitely take your advice and take her back in a couple of weeks to see if it has cleared up or not - that's if we don't make a visit prior because she has another one!

I am praying that its just the time of year and its something she will grow out of. My eldest didn't have a single ear infection, he's 4 now. So I'm not used to this...