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Original poster

Anyone know about ears?

26 replies

easy · 16/02/2004 14:16

ds (nearly 4 1/2) has always secreted masses of very dark brown wax in his ears, but never had a problem with ear pain or such.

However, this weekend he has complained whenever putting a jumper on or off that it hurts his left ear. Doesn't complain the rest of the time.

I don't know how to see if it's an infection or what. It has the usual gunge, which he won't let me near to clear out.

Anything I can do before we see the Dr. tomorrow?

OP posts:
SenoraPostrophe · 16/02/2004 14:25

Not much you can do for an ear infection but give antibiotics. I think you can only wait for the doctor's opinion really, though if he has any other symptoms (temperature, feeling generally a bit poorly) then I'd get him an emergency appt today.

PS dd's doc did say that a good way of telling whether she has an ear infection or not is to press behind her ear and see if she winces - don't know if that would apply to older kids though as she is still too little to tell me it hurts.

Original poster
easy · 16/02/2004 14:27

no, not poorly in any way. My childminder has just taken him with her kids for 2 hours exploring in the local country park

OP posts:
lou33 · 16/02/2004 14:46

My kids get them a lot. One of our gp's studied ENT , and says that for every 100 children who have an ear infection, 88 will get better without any anti biotics,that it would make no difference to the rate of recovery. Of the remaining 12, 7 will recover a bit more quickly, and 5 will actually get worse with anti biotics. So when we go along with an ear infection, they DO prescribe some anti biotics , but on condiditon that we abstain for a day or 2 and see if it improves itself. Except for last time, when ds2's ear was too bad to leave.

SenoraPostrophe · 16/02/2004 14:51

lou33 - that is what I thought, until dd got mastoiditis (nasty infection which develops from an untreated ear infection and which requires hospital treatment). Dd's ear infection was so short-lived I didn't even notice it (she had a temp for 2 days, which went away). I have changed from a rabid anti-anti-biotics person to a cautious fan overnight.

lou33 · 16/02/2004 15:52

I always keep it at home though Senora just in case. Kids can change so rapidly can't they?

Marina · 19/02/2004 11:06

Sorry to hijack your thread easy (hope he is better now) but can I ask you something Lou?
Dd has had two ear infections in the past three weeks which have developed rapidly from a general head cold to perforated eardrum almost within hours. Are the ENT people really saying that this sort of condition resolves itself without antibiotics? I'm petrified that whenever she gets a cold from now on this is going to happen without warning (and yes, I immediately thought of SenoraP's appalling recent experiences).
Like you Senora, I was pretty sceptical about antibiotics until recently. But that's because ds never got any ear infections...

Kayleigh · 19/02/2004 11:14

I suffer from sinus problems and last weekend had a Hopi ear candle treatment. It is meant as a treatment for ear/nose problems. It was fantastic & very relaxing. It basically draws out wax and gunge from your ear canal which is where sinus trouble/ear infections can stem from.

Anyway my point is the therapist talked at length about ears and said that you shouldn't clean your ears with q-tips or such like as basically what you are doing is pushing wax into the ear canal where it can form a plug and cause a blockage. This in turn can turn into an infection.
She said that ears are meant to be self cleaning and you should only cleanse around the outer ear with a damp flannel. My ds2 has ear infections so have immediately stopped using q-tips and if he gets an ear infection again woud definitely let him have this treatment before i tried anti-biotics.
She specifically does a childrens treatment and gave me the leaflet. If anyone is interested will copy info out for you later- but am at work at moment.

twiglett · 19/02/2004 11:20

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Kayleigh · 19/02/2004 11:29

Apparently the kids candles are half the size of adult ones and therefore take half the time to burn. So maybe 5-6 minutes each ear. Don't think I'd want to do it on a child myself, would prefer to go to therapist. I'm sure my ds would lie still for her, just like he sits still for the barber. But he won't sit still for me for a second !

Kayleigh · 19/02/2004 11:31

And yes please twiglett, I would be interested in website as I would like to do my own treatment. Would probably have to get dh to sit with me as knowing me I'd burn the house down

twiglett · 19/02/2004 11:38

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Kayleigh · 19/02/2004 11:41

Good point ! Although my dh would probably get bored, let his mind wander and we'd still burn the house down

Will look out for your post, thank you

lou33 · 19/02/2004 12:03

Hi Marina. I'm not anti biotics at all , when one of mine gets an infection I sit there praying they will dish them out, because to me it seems to help them every time. However, the gp at my surgery, said he specialised in ENT during his hospital training, and that was the impression he gave me. Ds2 was given anti biotics without a second thought by a different gp at the same surgery recently, but with ds1, who had a middle ear infection with effusion, I was told the info about 88 getting better by themselves. I don't want to be responsible for anyone getting poorly because of me though. I have to say, for me the anti biotics always seem to work, and quite quickly.

robinw · 20/02/2004 06:28

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Marina · 20/02/2004 10:50

Robin, a quick one - is there a good source of xylitol for under ones, do you know? Should I stoke her up with Teetha powders? (I notice it's an ingredient but the percentage is not given).
We followed your advice with ds but he was older when I found out about xylitol and could use the Boots toothpaste. He has only ever had one ear infection, like your dd. I am very much in your debt on his behalf and have told so many friends about xylitol

tamum · 20/02/2004 11:00

Just to add to lou33's posts, my dd had lots of really nasty ear infections. What both the GP and ENT specialist told us was that although antibiotics may not be needed in a high proportion of ear infections (I'm sure this is the Dutch study they're all referring to), it is important to give antibiotics if the eardrum has perforated. It's really to keep it as sterile as possible while the wound heals, to minimise the amount of scarring. My dd had a perforated eardrum loads of times, sounds just like yours Marina, but then suddenly outgrew the problem and has no long-term hearing problems.

coppertop · 20/02/2004 11:07

As a child I suffered frequently from ear infections but was rarely given antibiotics. When the ENT consultant first examined my ears to try to find out why I was going deaf (otosclerosis) he asked me how many operations I'd had on my ears. I hadn't had any. The scarring was so bad that it just looked as though I had.

Marina · 20/02/2004 11:11

Tamum, thanks for that reassuring information about the long-term effects of perforation. I found it utterly alarming the first time it happened and very depressing the second. She is not making a big fuss, otherwise I like to think I'd have spotted the symptoms.
We instinctively have not been washing her hair for the first few days after the effusion appeared - I guess that's one thing we got right!
Lou, so far our doctor has been happy to prescribe and we've been happy to administer. Tamum's info probably explains why our GP didn't muck about...
Another friend told me that her GP told HER that an ear infection can go from being slightly bothersome to agony in half an hour...yikes.

handlemecarefully · 20/02/2004 13:11

A colleague at work has told me about her daughter, who developed a 2nd ear infection shortly after her first and the GP refused to give antibiotics. This time the perforated ear drum didn't heal and she is left with a hole in the ear drum for which she requires an operation

robinw · 22/02/2004 09:12

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twiglett · 22/02/2004 09:17

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robinw · 22/02/2004 09:18

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Kayleigh · 22/02/2004 12:15

twiglett, there's no rush. Hope he let you have a lie-in yesterday.

Kayleigh · 22/02/2004 12:19

twiglett, just seen your other thread so sorry if my comment was a bit flippant. Your poor dh. And poor you. ((((hug))))

twiglett · 22/02/2004 12:42

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