Ear Infections - Davenport,IA

I battled ear infections and runny nose until all my son's teeth came in, then the snot quite as did the ear infections- at about the age of 3 or 4

A couple of things:

1. Are you seeing a regular doctor, or an ENT? An ENT is trained in this area, so any time my daughters have anything Ear, Nose or Throat related, to the ENT we go. A regular pediatrician is not specially trained in the ears.

2. Does she still have the tubes? 1 1/2 is pretty young to have had tubes, only because her eustacian tubes still won't be developed. My 8-year-old had to have tubes twice because when she had them the first time at 3, and then they fell out, her eustacian tubes still weren't developed enough. She had them again at five. So, your daughter may need tubes again, but I would wait a while.

3. Keep her nostrils clear, because blocked sinuses can cause infections to develop. Use a saline spray or drops several times per day. This can help keep infections from ever developing. I do this for myself and it helps A LOT.

4. Do not (I repeat: DO NOT) let your daughter have a bottle or sippy cup at nap time or at bed time, or ever let her drink while she is laying down. This can cause ear infections.

5. Taking too many courses of antibiotics can cause resistance or allergies to the drugs, and can cause a suppressed immune system, so try to use them as little as possible.

Good luck!!

My son has intolerances which do not show up on allergy tests. He is intolerant to gluten, casein (the protein in milk), and nuts. But he is not allergic to them. His symptoms were a lot of mucous and some chapping and exema. Once we took him off (after a lot of experimenting to see what his intolerances were), all his symptoms have disappeared. You may want to work with a naturopath or with Metametrix to see about a diagnosis if you feel you need one. Otherwise, experimenting with his diet might work wonders for you and your little one!

I could have written this word for word, check some of my earlier posts. My DD who is about to turn 2 has had ear infections and sinus infections since we put her on regular (non soy) formula and regular milk. Had tubes put in at 13 months only to have the same issues. Upon doing my own research and deciding to take her off ALL dairy, we have been smooth sailing. This includes anything made with dairy products.

She would get the infections go on antibiotics get better, but within a few days to a week would have everything back again. Once we took her off all dairy she would catch a cold, but after a week it would be gone and no ear infections. Finally my pediatrician agreed with me and said she had a sensitivity to dairy. They told us to try every 6 months and see what happened. So this March we started giving her products made with dairy, but not big things like yogurt, cheese, or milk, just products that had dairy in it. She seemed to be doing fine no problems, until she caught the cold my hubby brought home. We all got it but recovered after a week or 2, not her. She ended up with you guessed it a sinus and ear infections. Took her off all dairy again and she has recovered.

I highly recommend taking her off all dairy. You may not be able to tell if it is working until she gets another cold and see how she reacts and if she can recover on her own. My DD recovers on her own with no antibiotics as long as she has no dairy in her system.

No dairy and chiropractic! You're in a good town for the chiropractors :). I've seen chiropractic care work within three months for all but one kid out of maybe ten!

Eta: it makes the most sense to try chiropractic first! It's a natural form of healthcare, as opposed to giving your child unnecessary amounts of medications and surgery, etc.

Yes, we ended up being admitted to the hospital and my son received an iv antibiotic for about 3 days. My child was about one year old at that time. At the time (25 years ago.... things certainly could be different now) the doctor explained that some bacteria cannot be killed off by oral antibiotics alone. We went to a pediatric ENT with a big reputation in California. Our son was much much better but continued to have occasional ear infections during most of his elementary years.

Allergies may be an issue.

A few years ago I became an independent distributor of natural products, including nutritional and vitamin items. I have learned in the last few years how we can combat allergies by building the immune system. For your little girl I would suggest a top of the line vitamin program and if she will eat yogurt (to get probiotics, which some studies show help fend off ear infections). Also, the root of the alfalfa is a natural way to keep allergies at bay, along with being a natural antihistamine. Feel free to shoot me a message if I can help further.

Good Luck! She will outgrow eventually.

I am sorry to hear that the tubes/adenoid removal aren't working for your little one. All three of my kids have tubes due to recurring ear infections. My son got them at 9 months (he is now 4 and no longer has tubes), and my twin girls both got them at 6 months (they still have them). Luckily, the tubes have worked for us.

First of all, I have to assume you are working with an ENT not a ped? If not, I would only be visiting an ENT at this point. It is the anatomy of the ear being unable to drain that is the main reason for the infections. Maybe that ear needs a bigger tube, which the ENT would be the dr to make that call.

Allergies may definately be a reason for the constant runny nose. If you speak to an allergist they may okay her to be on loradidine (claritin) even before she turns 2 to see if it helps. My son has taken it since age 2 (for seasonal allergies) - he just got an ear infection last week becuase his allergies were so out of control with this early spring and with his tubes out his ear got filled with fluid again. We are now waiting to see if he needs set #2 of tubes if he gets another few infections.

While I am not a believer in chiorpractic, I might try it after all other things if I were in your position to see if it brought any releif for your daughter.

As a last resort, (I don't know if they do this anymore) I have heard of kids being on a lower dose antibiotic regimine daily for a few months to allow for the infections to completely clear it up.

Good luck. Ear aches suck. My husband had problems with his ears until he grew out of it around age 9. This is the reason we figure all our kids have the bad ear anatomy.

Our daughter had tubes put in at one year and continued to get infections. We took her off dairy and she still got infections. Finally we took her to an osteopathic doctor who manipulated her skull so as to open up the eustachian tube and give it room to grow where it was supposed to. She stopped getting infections. So now I swear by osteopathy. She also had lots of runny noses but the infections stopped despite runny noses and colds.

I had this happen with a little boy in my daycare. He was just little, with little parts and passage ways. And he did end up having allergies. In general though, it took longer for colds to clear from his sinuses and he got one ear infection after another. If you've tried tubes already, I'm not sure what more you can do. I've had a little boy take allergy medicine at age 2 1/2, but I don't know if they'd prescribe anointing like that for your daughter at her young age. I wonder if you could look at her diet and see if there's something that might be causing more mucus production...?Wish I had better advice... Good luck.

I totally agree with Nikki G! I was always told that kids that age are really too young to develop allergies. I would def take her to an ENT, and one that deals with kids. My son had his first set of tubes at age 1. He had 8 ear infections by the time he turned a year old. Some kids will have to have 2 and 3 sets put it and yes they will eventually outgrow this. good luck!