18 month-old with snotty ear-discharge

[Honneybunny]

For the last couple of nights ds2 (18mo) has been very unsettled. He's still bf-ding and this usually helps to settle him/put him back to sleep, but he has refused to feed, and hasn't slept for much more than a couple of hours the past couple nights.
Now today loads of snotty green/yellow discharge has started streaming from his ear, and he has cried on and off for most of the day. I called NHS direct who said it was probably an ear infection and to keep his ears dry adn take him to GP tomorrow. This sounded like the right thing to do to me, but i was just wondering now, how you can tell the difference between an inner and outer ear infection, as it seems to me that if this is an inner ear infection he might need to see someone a bit sooner...
He's had several doses of both calpol and ibuprofen today, and despite that is still running a temp of 38.4C.

Definitely GP tomorrow.

If it was an inner ear infection it's already burst its way out through his earbrum (hence the discharge) which means the painful pressure will have gone down and he should start perking up and temp dropping.

If it was an abscess in the outer ear it's already burst so the above may still apply but migth take longer to perk up.

Are you interleaving the calpol and ibuprofen? (eg Calpol every 4h at noon, 4pm, 8pm; ibuprofen every 4h at 2pm, 6pm, 10pm - have forgotten what the recommended time inetrvals for 18mo are)

eardrum, not earbrum

talking cars, that little-known cause of runny ears...

LOL brum-brumm
Thanks for the advice!

no less than 4 hours for calpol and 6 hours for ibuprofen, and no more than 4 doses of calpol and 3 of ibuprofen - I recall from a dim and hazy past!

Hi, my ds (13mo) has had this a couple of times and it was diagnosed as a perforated ear-drum. He definitely improved after it burst. Dr prescribed anti-bs.

Hope he gets better soon.

My dd has had this a couple of times - both times perforated ear drum and improved loads when it started to discharge. Our GP doesn't like over prescribing anti-biotics, so we just gave her medised.

Hope he gets better soon