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Original poster

Repated Ear Infections - 6.5 month old - advice needed!!!

8 replies

vivaone · 29/10/2009 17:30

hi all
My LO Is 6.5 months old now, and he has just been diagnoised with his second ear infection. He had one about 2 months ago, after a cold, and this one has appeared after anohter cold. His Ear drum has perforated twice (all the gunge came out of his ear) and he has been on anti b's twice to help clear it up.

I obv hate the thought that he is in pain, and uncomfy and also that he is on anti bis again. THe docs have said that they do not like the ear drum to perforated more than twice in LOS as it can lead to loss of hearing or deafness the more it happens. Therefore they propose to either give him grommits (which I hear have a low success rate these days) or long term low dose anti bis.

The thought of both make me feel really worried and of course have their disadvantages.

The doc said that I shoudl be vigilent about keeping him away from colds etc as that seems to be the tirgger for his ear infections, but thats so hard as colds are flying around all over the place esp in winter, his little group of friends have them all the time - and its a healthy part of buliding immunity to be exposed to them. That is going to be hard in itself as I dont want to stop him from doing all the fun stuff we do etc.

Has anyone been though this with their LO's and would you have any advice for me, im so stressed out about it all.

thanks in advance ...

OP posts:
BlueBumedFly · 29/10/2009 21:59

Vivaone- we had this with DD, she went through about 6 rounds of antibs about the same age going up to a year. Then the spring came and she was OK and the next winter the exact same thing.

I was told by a lovely MNer to put probiotics in her milk as the antibiotics would have destroyed the immunity in the gut which means she picked up everything going and kept on infecting. It did work, brilliantly I am pleased to say.

A friend also had this with the ear perfs and they were told not to get the ear wet for about 6 months. She stopped swimming with her and had a ear protector thing for washing hair. It did work but on the odd occasion now after swimming she can have an issue.

Also (sorry rambling now) I was told that if a baby feeds very flat when they have a cold, the mucus pools in the ear and is likely to infect. I do not know how true this is by DD used to feed lying totally flat on her back and it did seem to help if I help her more upright and then kept her upright for a while after a bottle.

The best bit of advice I had was the antibs are a nightmare to their little systems and whilst they are needed sometimes you need to heal the gut afterwards. Perhaps try some infant acidophilus?

We also had a whole winter on Dalivit vitamins which also seemed to help help keep the wolf from the door.

I think one of the worse things about LOs getting ear infects is the temperature, DD used ot spike to 40.3 which was so very stressful so I completely understand where you are coming from.

Good luck, try some probiotics if you can?

2point4pets · 29/10/2009 23:59

totally sympathise, we are going through the same thing right now with DD 8 months old - she now has thrush in the mouth thanks to the antibiotics.
Have an appointment with specialist in 1 month - I expect grommits will be on the cards as we have now had 3 infections in 6 weeks. not too bothered about this though as best we are on to it rather than findout well down the line that she has suffered a hearing loss which could have a massive knock-on effect educationally if undetected

BlueBum Where do you get baby pro-biotic? can you just use normal adult yoghurt or drinks? sounds like a good idea...

alypaly · 30/10/2009 11:21

get them treated as soon as poss otherwise it can lead to hearing problems if they remain untreated for too long. ask to see a specialist if they are so recurrent

Original poster
vivaone · 30/10/2009 13:20

thanks guys
I think probiotics are a very good idea, will ask the doc when I see him next week. Im sure I can pick them up in the health shop

OP posts:
BlueBumedFly · 30/10/2009 21:11

You can get powered acidophilus in good health shops, really good shops keep them refridgerated.

I cannot say how good they were for dd, in calendar year we must have had 10 lots of antibs running right up to last Xmas day. I don't want to jinx it but since I started to use acidophilus and dalivit we have not had one dose (bbf runs off and touches every wooden object in the house!!)

Original poster
vivaone · 31/10/2009 22:01

thanks will take a look in town this week. Hope the dreaded infections stay away for your lo bbf!

OP posts:
foxinsocks · 31/10/2009 22:04

lol at try to keep them away from colds! how do you do that!

it's a bad time of year for them too

I agree re the specialist referral. We waited with both ds and dd (and the doctor didn't want to refer grr) and I really really regret not pushing harder for it

SingleMum01 · 31/10/2009 22:22

My DS was prone to ear infections for the first 2/3 years. Constant round of infection/antibiotics/lack of sleep every other week. It was very hard at the time, but he did out grow it. We were under hospital observation and possible gromits, but luckily they cleared up of their own accord.

My doctor told me it takes 10 weeks for the mucus to clear from the ear canal after an infection, so its probably the same infection time after time.

Realistically (sorry) but you've just got to go with it and they'll outgrow it

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