Experience needed re toddler & ear infection

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20 month old has a load of discharge coming from his ear last week. Saw a nurse, was given ear drops (antibiotic ones) we are on day 4 of a 5 day course. Yesterday there was no gunk, today there is some again. No temp or anything as of yet. Seems ok in himself. Sometimes pulls on his ear. Have been giving him Calpol at night as it was bothering him & waking him. Having never had an ear infection in the house before I don’t know if the gunk should still be there? Should it have buggered off by now? Or can it continue? There’s only one day left of the drops which get administered twice a day. TIA

As a lifelong ear infection sufferer who.unfortunately passed this on to my son (who once had 12 ear infections in 12 months), it depends on what the discharge is.

If the discharge is because of a ruptured ear drum, it's likely fine and the discharge will continue until the rupture heals.

If this is an outer ear infection (which I'm guessing is the case because you were given drops), I would expect the gunk to stop. I'd say if it hasn't cleared by the day after your last day of drops, I'd be back to the doctor. You might have managed to make a dent in the infection which is why little one feels better, but could still be lingering and flare up again.

@NewAzureBirdThanks so much for your reply. The nurse said she didn’t think the drum had ruptured but it was my OH who took him in, so I had no chance to ask questions. How do you know if the ear drum has ruptured? Can they tell or is it more an assumption based on symptoms?

They can literally see it when they look in the ear! - so if she said it hadn't burst you are probably good! You would also probably know though, because it is EXCRUCIATING right before it bursts (because of the pressure build up). So if you didn't notice a period of extreme pain then instant relief from your baby, you're probably good. Sometimes ear infections can be stubborn, but thankfully outer ear infections are generally less painful and disruptive.

@NewAzureBirdAh I see, thank you, makes sense! I have a 6 year old & she’s never knowingly had an ear infection so this is all new to me. The amount of gunk was quite something. It’s nowhere near as much but it is still there. I’ll see what happens tomorrow or Monday but if it is outer ear I did think the drops would have sorted it.

What can happen is that if the infection is causing a temperature rise, then the wax melts and comes out of the ear. Disgusting, but nothing unusual.
It doesn't sound like the drum has burst, so continue with the drops and Calpol.

So just to update..

ten days ago the discharge was still there so I took him back to the Docs where he was given oral antibiotics for 5 days. All good. However the discharge is now back again 🤦‍♀️

obviously we will be going to the doctors again but my concern is the fact this just doesn’t seem to be going away & the antibiotics clearly didn’t sort the infection or only did so temporarily. Ear drum is also perforated.

Not really sure where we go from here, ENT? Can’t see they’ll be happy giving him more antibiotics. More worried also about the possibility of hearing issues long term.

Ds was like that. He did need antibiotics each time. You could try asking for a double set to knock it on the head.
They may also want to swab the discharge - one time ds had an antibiotic resistant strain of ear infection, so they had to swap the antibiotics used.

@MargaretThursdayThank you, did he ever get sent to ENT? Ever diagnosed with glue ear or anything else? Did it ever end?!

I'd go back and ask for a swab to be taken. It will see what bacteria is responsible and tell you what antibiotics should work. They will hopefully start you know more straight away too, then if change us needed they ring you.

My DS had 3 ear infections in 1.5 years and if he gets another he'll be referred to ENT

Yes he was at ENT from about 15 months, diagnosed with glue ear.
Had grommets at 20 months, 3.6yo and 6yo
He did have ear infections almost continuously from 10 weeks old.
He's 17yo and recently been discharged from ent.

@MargaretThursdayI'm glad he’s been discharged. Did it affect his hearing or speech?

I suppose I’m in limbo land, wondering if it’s just a horrid infection that the first lot of antibiotics did nothing for & it’ll take a second lot to clear or whether as the first lot didn’t clear it up we are headed down the Glue ear route.

Speech slightly, hearing yes, but his hearing is in the normal range now.

He does have some ear damage but not major.

Definitely ask them to swab it before they prescribe anything else. DS had recurrent infections and a perforation for 3 years so he ended up immune to Amoxicillin. Thankfully after persuading ENT to operate the hole closed on its own and we’ve been relatively infection free ever since.

@zebrapigThey have swabbed it. Currently he’s on Amox but if it needs to change they’ll be in touch. Did your DS end up having glue ear due to the infections? Bless him, sounded very painful what he went through. What op did the ENT do?

@MargaretThursdayGlad all ended as well as it could. Xx

Hope your DS is doing ok now. I think he probably had glue ear although because he had a perforation we didn’t get the fluid build up - it would all just ooze out. The usual treatment for glue ear is grommets, which put a tube through the ear drum, but given he had a hole anyway they didn’t put any in. I think due to the hole we were lucky as it didn’t usually bother him that much.

I had asked for the hole to be closed as it wasn’t healing on its own (myringoplasty) and when there’s a hole they like you to keep the ear dry, so no swimming, careful in the bath, etc. This was becoming an issue so they had agreed to operate (they normally prefer to wait until the child is older). When it came to do the op the hole had closed on its own - at this point he’d had it for 2+ years and I’d given up hope of it happening on its own.