Absolute bloody disaster!! We're supposed to go to Disneyland in a few hours

[Sneakysloth]

We have to leave at 9am to drive to the eurotunnel and go to Disneyland and I've been awake since 2am with a sobbing 4 year old really distressed that his ear hurts. We've all had horrible coughs/colds this last week and I think his has developed into an ear infection. He keeps asking if we can still go and I'm telling him not to worry and just to rest but then he gets distressed that he doesn't want to not go. I phoned 111 at 3am but not heard back yet (I know that might sound dramatic, but it is the weekend and it seemed better than A&E?)

He's had calpol when he first woke, ibuprofen not long ago, got a warm flannel on his ear. I'm sat up so he can rest on me and be a bit more upright to try ease pain. We wait for the doctor to call. But in the mean time.. gonna have to shatter all my kids excitement about Disneyland aren't I?

OP is probably gone now, but health care in France is much, much better than in the UK. The pharmacists have a much greater scope, doctors are accessible quickly. As long as OP is not flying (which would be excruciating for her child), he is likely to get better treatment if they go.

This thread is just one massive advertisement for why the general public shouldn’t be allowed to post on the internet 🙄

Hope you got sorted OP

This thread is just one massive advertisement for why the general public shouldn’t be allowed to post on the internet

Then don’t:

Onion juice really works, (not at all woo, google it, contains an anti inflamatory substance) but held in a compress next to the ear, not in it.

No, you're not missing something. My fault, I quoted the wrong flippin' post!

My comment was aimed at the poster who was hand wringing and saying the OP was scared of her husband. 🙄

I'm a prescribing advance nurse practitioner and over the years there has been very few occasions that antibiotics, particularly oral are truly indicated . There is a culture of expectation in this country that antibiotics are the holy grail of treatment and actually often all that's needed if self care and I speak a child who suffered with frequent ear ache.

You have probably gone now but I would go to a pharmacist first thing or drop in centre and then travel. If that's not an option I'd go to a doctor over the border. We had to go to the Dr last time we were in France and found it quite easy to sort out. I wouldn't make the whole family miss Disneyland over an ear infection.

This!
I hope OP made it. DD had similar a few months ago. Nothing given by GP just day off school and she was ok at home all day, went back next day.

Hope you managed to go and little one is a lot better 🙏

You don't usually need antibiotics for an ear infection. Took Dd to doctors with one after 3 days of it and they said no to antibiotics. Two days later it was on the mend. Earcalm spray is good.

Ridiculous advice. His ear needs to be looked at before OP pours olive oil into his ear, he could have a perforated eardrum for all she knows

Those people stating that French pharmacists can offer much more in the way of treatments than in the UK , which treatment exactly ? I know that they are able to prescribe ABs in a couple of of very specific scenarios, but that's the extent it as far as I know.

French pharmacists train for 7 years and, apart from taking a history and basic observations, they will look in the ear with an otoscope (auroscope), which is probably the most useful thing to do.

Are you staying onsite at disneyland,OP? If you haven't gone then give them a call. From experience they can move your booking despite what the booking terms say.

If you have gone ahead then perhaps try the onsite doctor (at the front of the studios park) or if in a disney hotel ask the concierge in your hotel to call the doctor. They did this for us when DD developed a vomiting bug

Hope all is ok OP

Not helpful to the op at this pass but when ds was little he had intractable ear infections. 11 in 8 months between 7 months old and 15 months. They made him very unwell and calpol and ibuprofen along did not work. We were literally up night after night. Every time we got to the Dr's they declared one or both ear drums were bulging. As soon as the AB's were finished he started another infection.

The GP said no point referring to ENT as they would not do anything unless the hearing was affected and it couldn't be because he had advanced speech. He was almost continuously unwell. We paid privately in the end and grommets were like a miracle but of course they were totally unnecessary along with the AB's.

DS didn't have another ear infection until he was 8. Again the NHS were hopeless and refused to do anything about it. His ear drum burst twice. UK: it's burst now, it will heal, no AB's, just get on with it. Austria: immediate referral to ENT as basic protocol, the ear was cleaned, AB's prescribed. Guess where recovery was quickest?

Referred privately again. DS had a congenital ear condition. Choleastasis ? It means every time there is infection some calcium builds up on the bone. Eventually it can lead to total deafness. The ENT co sultant advised that three or four more infections and DS would have needed a much more significant op than a grommet to make the drum heal in the right position - every infection was displacing it further due to the calcium/bone build-up.

The NHS approach - do nothing, let it heal, not a problem. The attitude to ear problems in children in the UK is atrocious.

I hope the op's wee boy is OK. Ears are not a DIY issue. When ds was little, the GP gave us an emergency AB prescription. In those days pharmacists closed at tea time and didn't open on Sundays.

@SanctusInDistress my Polish neighbour was always aghast at how we have to see a doctor for antibiotics.

It seems France is more lenient also.

Yet here we are taking on the world's ad lib anti biotic use and suffering.

@hollylou i wish people would listen to you and not the “antibiotics for everything” brigade 🤬

Also op I was on the Disney fb sites and you can see docs there infact probably a lot easier to see than here but when we were in France when we were still part of the eu we did have to pay for doc /hospital.
In fact they wouldn't treat dd until they got all our details.

A few saying go to out of hours. I believe now you have to call 111 (like the op has) and they will refer you to out of hours if needed, it’s not like the old days when you phoned your normal GPs number and got transferred to the out of hours surgery.

@Sneakysloth Did you manage to go? Hope you did and have a great time!

Agreed. Maybe if people had to pay for their A and E visits like we do in the US this nonsense would stop.

🤣🤣🤣
Pull the other one.
I've never met bigger hypochondriacs who told everyone else to go to the ER for everything ever, or people with more unnecessary prescriptions they "needed" than when I lived in the US. Your whole system is built on pushing unnecessary things on people so everyone involved gets paid as much as possible!

Are you in France now, or at Home ?

Thank you 💜 trust me its a constant battle trying to explain to people why antibiotics won't treat their self limiting virus, I lose the will to live some days and this thread is the perfect example of why