Ear infection veterans - can you give me some advice please?

[mrsflowerpot]

I think dd has an ear infection - she's at the end of a cold, has been whingy and sleeping badly since the weekend, and this afternoon she has had a yellowy discharge from one ear. Not masses, but enough to notice. She's not running a temperature, and she's actually brighter today than she's been for days.

Should I still take her to the GP tomorrow, or are we past the point where they can help her? NHS direct website says they often clear up without treatment, but I can't get through to them on the phone at the mo.

Am feeling v guilty as I put it down to teeth and didn't realise what it probably is until today.

hopeful bump

Take her if you are still worried but chances are they won't give you anything. DD2 had ear infection at 6 mo and was in horrendous pain but they only let us give her calpol and she was better in a few days. Horrible though isn't it ?

Don't feel guilty. I have also put ear infections down to teething. Take her to GP tomorrow if you want to put your mind at ease.

The calpol should take away the pain. My doctor told me (as preventative measure) to never allow dd to take a bottle lying down. He said that bacteria from the milk could be a cause.

oh thank you - I am not worried at all really, she's not in horrendous pain (although she might have been all the time I was putting it down to teeth poor thing ), and as I say, she's brighter tonight than she's been for days. I willl see how she is in the morning I think.

Hi Mrsflowerpot

Don't feel guilty - ear infections are so common.

Here's a really useful piece of info that's worth a read.

Practical tips and information, also treatment info if you're interested in future preventative care.

Scroll to the bottom of the page on this link and look at the Ear Infections section. Really worth a look. You can also download the ear infection bit as a PDF (see articles box on right hand side) as it was an article in a mag (cute pics too!):

www.barnes-chiropractic.co.uk/babies_and_children.html

Best wishes

Sara x

Thanks for that Sara - will keep on hand in case dd turns into a recurrent ear-infectioner.

Just a quick update in case anyone finds this in the archives, have been to GP, yes, is an infection and we have antibiotics. He told me that the general ENT advice is to wait 3 days unless it's clearly very bad (ie raging temp, bloody pus from ears), treat pain with Calpol and only go for antibiotics if it's lasted longer than that. Hope that's helpful to someone at some point!