Pls help - recurrent ear infection in 15m old

[pebbles]

Please help. My 15m old daughter is on her 3rd ear infection since xmas day. She was put on antibiotics on 27th Dec and by time we finished course - 7 days later it had cleared up. 2 days after finishing it was back with avengence so went back to drs and they prescribed another lot of antibiotics - different one - again, took 3-4 days to clear up and we finished course - prob about 8 1/2 days.

Anyway we finished Friday before last, she then got a d&v bug which lasted 6 days til Thursday. Today... ear infection back.

I'm not really keen on putting her on another set of antibiotics as she's only 15m and the last 2 lots haven't worked. I've read cranial osteopathy can help so i've booked her an appointment for Tuesday morning.

We are doing all the obvious for pain relief - calpol, ibuprofen, not wetting her ears (however we haven't washed her hair properly now since when it started so this isn't the cause), keeping her upright, letting her drink lots of water so the sucking helps the hurting.

Please please tell me ALL wives tales that you know cos we will try anything.

[Fuschia]

Have you looked at this? http://www.childrenfirst.nhs.uk/families/az_child_health/e/ear-infections.html

Maybe you cna get referred to ENT at the hospital?

[Belle]

Pebbles, I feel for you - we've been through this, at s imilar age and then again more recently.

In the end, on the advice of family with similar experience, we pushed for a referral to an ENT specialist. He straight away diagnosed glue ear - amazingly it didn't seem to be affecting our son's hearing but it can, and that's one reason to address it. The other issue was the recurrent ear infections which as you've experienced, create pain that is almost impossible to alleviate. We very quickly (after something like the sixth ear infection in two months, I think) all came to the conclusion that grommets were the best option. They were brilliant - v unusually they recently came out (prematurely - after six months when they were meant to last up to 18 months) - and just yesterday my son had an operation to get them reinserted, after a batch of ear infections over xmas. I'm not saying that's what your little girl will need, just that it showed to me that a specialist was a much more efficient way of dealing with the situation than repeated GP visits which all ended in a prescription, which whilst it sorted that outbreak, didn't address the bigger picture.

Anyway, igoring that slight tangent, my point is that you should push for a referral because that sounds like quite a high frequency of ear infections. I also think if you suspect another ear infection, take the antibiotics. I talked to the specialist about this, and the stories he told me put my fears about too frequent antibiotic use to rest, and instead made me realise it's far safer in this instance to use them - ear infections can get very nasty and complicated without them.

Afraid I don't have any wives' tales, as you can see in our experience it was conventional medicine which won out, but I do have masses of sympathy for you, as I know how horrendous this is for everyone concerned. Does she use a dummy? My son did at the point they first started happening and that helped. Other than that, he usually had high fevers with them, so we would strip him right down and just let him curl up near us watching cbeebies to ride out the worst. Will she drink a smoothie? That might help too.

edited to add, there are other things in between antibiotics and grommets that can be tried - we tried some special granules the ENT specialist prescribed first off, in the end they weren't enough to stop the infections, but worth bearing in mind there are other medical options.

[pebbles]

Thanks Belle and Fuschia, i'll phone the drs first thing Monday. Luckily we have private health insurance for her so hopefully will be able to get her an ENT appointment asap. Belle - would you recommend your ENT dr? Name/hospital? I will also give her antibiotics again as well - thank you for alleviating my concerns Belle.

She doesn't have a dummy but she does suck her thumb which is good. Can i ask why a smoothie? I've also read that dairy products aren't necessarily good? sorry for all the questions i just feel so so sorry for her and dreadful that she gets it at the weekend when we have to wait til monday.

[Belle]

Will pm you details. We also have insurance through husband's work and that fastracked us massively - just recently for e.g. we had the appt where we agreed on reinsertion of the grommets about 10 days ago, then the op yesterday. Brilliant.

Smoothies - I meant those Ella's or Innocent ones (the latter with straw - the former those squeezy ones) - so not dairy, just fruity :) - just found it a good way of getting some food into him, and think he found it quite soothing, helps with the sucking/swallowing action you mentioned. I so feel for you, as we've had the weekend ones too, in fact went down to Seldoc a couple of times - worth trying that if you're worried about her, the antibiotics do kick in reasonably fast - the sooner the better really.

[Fuschia]

from my memory of ear infections, something warm is comforting against the ear

[Fuschia]

from my memory of ear infections, something warm is comforting against the ear

[Smiler]

My daughter had this at similar age but got better by itself. We just kept up with the calpol, lots of bottles, rest etc. Horrible, hope your little one feels better soon.

[Gubodge]

My daughter had numerous ear infections at around that age, but they cleared up when we started giving her goats milk to drink rather than cows. (We didn't need to cut out dairy completely, only as her main drink.)

[edanna]

No suggestions from me, sorry, but lots of sympathy! Hope she gets better soon. X