Ear infection oozing liquid

[ThatJadeLion]

Ok, when you have a child it's hard to know when to contact 111 and when not to as like a lot of people I'm conscious of burdening the system with something non urgent. However after search posts on Mumsnet I was thinking I'm not being proactive enough

My daughter started with an ear infection last Tuesday after a virus. Rang gp and was told to go pharmacy. They looked at her ear and gave lidocaine drops. Now the pain has gone but she has been oozing clear liquid from the infected ear since yesterday. The advice says ring 111 onljne but that doesn't take into account if a child has had an ear examination (which she has). Liquid is clear, she's mostly well within herself. Advice is contradictory online.

Thanks so much for reading.

I’d contact 111 for advice I think. It’s good that she’s not in pain now but I’d still want some reassurance.
I had an inner ear infection a few years back but the fluid coming out of my ear was horrible. Resulted In labrynthitis and I’m still dizzy to this day.

This used to happen to my dd when she was little. Anytime she got a cough and runny nose her ear would leak gunk too. But it was the period of time before the gunk came out where she’d get really upset, in pain and have a temperature. I think when it starts oozing it’s actually a good thing as it’s releasing the infection. It happened so often to dd that we ended up getting an ENT referral. Doctor said it was a perforated ear drum, very common in young dc and nothing to worry about. A few years on and she’s never had it again.

I think it’s one of those things that looks worse than it is. Obviously always treat the infection with antibiotics if needed but I wouldn’t worry too much about the gunk.

i suffered with frequent ear infections when I was little. The leaking stuff was the ear drum bursting and the infection leaking out. Hence the lack of pain, as the pressure had gone.

some doctors will prescribe anti biotics at this point to ensure it clears properly. If you’ve an out of hours (your local area might use 111 to triage) try that, or get an appointment tomorrow.

This is my understanding of it.
When children are little the tubes behind the ear drum are small and quite wiggly so stuff can fester and infections can be common. As the child grows these straighten out a little and become slightly bigger so there’s less chance of it festering and turning into an infection.
so most children grow out of it, which is why they don’t do grommets (tiny tubes in the ear drum to help stuff come out) on the nhs anymore.

however, they can be left with permanent damage from recurring infections. It can also affect behaviour and learning in class as it can be for the entirety of primary school until they grow out of it.