For the first time since Bridget was a baby, she has an ear infection. And Dave and I have decided we are going to do everything we can to heal it at home with alternative medicines rather than take her to the doc.
"Why?" you ask.
She's already on a boatload of meds. She has a lot of antibiotics over the last year. Earaches often heal on their own without antibiotic intervention. And we know, for sure, she'll be back in the hospital at some point in the future and, at that point, she will be exposed to some gross germies there. We want her to be as sensitive as possible to the antibiotics she might need then. We don't need her losing her sensitivities to antibiotics when she doesn't need to.
So...moms and dads: what do you do? We're massaging around her ears with essential oils. Any other advice? Or assvice, because we all know this is the interwebs.
Though this probably is not the ideal option for a lot of people, what we did was have tubes put in. All three of our kids had really bad recurring ear infections. After they got tubes, they went away. It is a surgical procedure, however.
ReplyDeleteI asked my cousin - she uses home remedies as much as possible. She said:
ReplyDelete"Well strangely enough breast milk makes the best drops for ear infections. If she has any or has any friends who are nursing she could ask for some.
Other then that, warm compresses. Lavender, tea tree oil, 4 thieves oil placed on a cotton ball and placed at the ear then covered with a warm compress.
They don't have to use all those oils then can use a combo or choose one. When they are a bit older they can take oregano oil capsules by mouth, that is super effective. But I haven't treated any one younger then 7 with capsules."
Up here in Montreal our doctor won't prescribe antibiotics for an ear infection unless it sticks around for a long time (or there are other issues at play). Her advice: saline drops in the nose (as you would for a cold/sore throat) which helps to flush germs out. She explained how the nose is attached to the ear but I can't remember now. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI recently went to a talk at a local conservation organization about "Winter Elixirs and Herbs" and they mentioned a warm onion and/or onion juice placed in the ear to help an ear infection: http://www.gwens-nest.com/natural-remedies/ear-infection-remedy/
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