Ear Infections

A few years back I got to spend more time than I cared to in a pediatric waiting room, holding a cranky child, surrounded by loads of sick children and adults, just waiting to find out if my baby had an ear infection.  After my two hour long wait the doctor took a quick ten second peak to tell me I just had a cranky boy, no ear infection. This experience ended up leaving a sour taste in my mouth. Other than feeling like it had been a wasted night, I decided I didn't like being at the mercy of some doctor to find out what was going on with my child. So from that point on I decided to take doctoring my children  more seriously.

At our local wal-mart while in search of a better Thermometer much to my surprise and delight I found and Otoscope. It was a $15 Dr.Mom brand otoscope complete with picture guide. When I took it home and tried it on my children I discovered that it worked great for being able to see the inside of the ear.

I look in my children's ears regularly that way when ever there is something serious going on in their ear I am able to notice right away. Also the children are a lot less wiggly or paranoid about what mommy is doing, when their ear is in pain, because they are used to me regularly checking their ears. When doing regular ear checks I have discovered that it is great to line up all the children  oldest to youngest, that way the younger ones see the older ones handling having their ears looked at and are more than happy to have mommy look in their ears.

So what do I do now when there is an ear infection:

Provided there is no perforation in the ear I use Garlic Oil and Mullein Oil to treat ear infections. Morning and night for 10 days I put 2-3 drops of Mullein oil followed by 2-3 drops of garlic oil into the ear then I place a small cotton ball in the ear covering the canal to keep the oils from dripping out on anything, and place a small bandaid over that to keep the cotton ball in place. For small infants en 1-2 drops of each oil is about all that will fit in the ear.   You will want to treat both ears at the same time because the ear nose and throat are all connected it is very easy for things to spread. So to keep balance and treat both ears equally.

As a side note: you will want to warm the oils up before dropping into ears. Cold oil in ears just isn't pleasant, especially in an ear that is already hurting.  I have large bottles of both of these oils and it is very inconvenient to try to warm up a large bottle every time. So I fill little dropper bottles with these two oils  and place the dropper bottles into my bra (amazing how warm it is in there) for about half an hour before dropping in the ears to make sure the oils are well warmed.

If the ear drum is perforated you will not want to place oils inside the ear. Instead I would recommend rubbing on Diluted (1 drop each in a tablespoon of grapeseed oil) Eucalyptus Radiata and Tea Tree along with Lavender around the ear area being sure to get the mastoid process, along neck and throat and getting up and over the bridge of the nose as well. After applying around the ear you can use a warm compress to drive the oils in faster. You can put a drop of Lavender on a cotton ball and place it in the ear not in the canal and cover with a bandaid. If  you have a child who will not leave this in, than you can place some drops of lavender on a warm compress and hold over the ear while the child lays in your lap. This will help to soothe and calm the child.  I would also recommend rubbing a drop of Tea Tree on the child's  feet (1 drop per foot for one year olds, 2 drops for two year olds, and 3 drops for three and up) morning and night.

Sometimes ears hurt and there is no visible reason why. It used to be an old-wives tale that said to have Grandpa blow his tobacco smoke into your ear and it would soothe the aching ear. Well years later we now know that it had nothing to do with the tobacco at all, it was the warm air that was soothing. So when the ear hurts and there is no visible reason grab your blow dryer and put it on low setting and hold it a comfortable distance away from the head and let the blow dryer blow the warm air in and soothe the aching ear.