I have a 5 month old who keeps grabbing at her ears as if she's in pain. Health visitor said it could be teething as she also has very red cheeks a lot of the time at the moment but it seems to come on really suddenly and she normally screams as if she's in agony. She also does it when I pick her up out of the cot/car seat etc she puts both her hands to each ear as I lift her up. She also won't feed off one side anymore (BF), it's almost like it hurts her if I hold her on one side. We've also been hit hard by the 4 month sleep regression which started at 3 months and has never improved. She went from sleeping through to not sleeping more than 2 hours at best. She wakes up suddenly and immediately screams and throws her arms about as if something's hurting.
I took her to the doctor when I first noticed it and he had a quick look in her ears and said they were fine, despite the fact she screamed the whole time we were there and I was trying to explain to him that she's not sleeping or feeding very well and is clearly in pain he said he didn't think anything was wrong and sent us on our way.
A week later and after an evening of her screaming in agony and clearly had a temperature I took her to the out of hours doctor who said she had an ear infection and gave a week of antibiotics.
They didn't appear to make any difference and she's still repeatedly grabbing at her ears and is clearly in pain.
Would teething really cause her this much of an issue? Or do I need to go back to the doctor a third time? I can live with the lack of sleep and the crying but I hate seeing her so upset and in pain. I've had to start giving formula because she won't feed on one side and it's affected my milk supply