Thursday, April 3, 2008
Ear infections
Willow has had three ear infections since Christmas. The first time it was her left ear and she was given amoxicillin. About 2 or 3 weeks later we went back with double ear infections. Her doctor wasn't sure if these were new or if they didn't clear up from before. So she gave her augmentin. We went back for a follow up two weeks later and she was clear. Her last one was two weeks ago in both ears and we just had a follow up doctor's visit to make sure they went away. The right side was clear but the left still had fluid in it. Her doctor believes this will probably drain on it's own but recommended antibiotics for a month to keep the fluid infection free while it has a chance to drain. She doesn't want another infection because then we will "have to start talking about tubes" and nobody wants that. She seems to be concerned that her left ear has the most trouble. Each of her infections was preceded by a cold, but cold season is pretty much over. Also, she hates medicine. She's at an age (8 months) where she can physically prevent us from giving it to her but too young to obey us (if that makes sense). She turns her head and spits it out and we make a big mess. (I know I can mix it in something if I need to.) I'm really just wondering if it's worth it to get this antibiotic. My other two kids never had ear infection issues or colds even. Abby just had breathing problems and Luke has Luke problems. Does anybody (of the 4 of you who actually reads this blog) have any experience/advice in this area?
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7 comments:
My kids never really had any problems with prolonged or multiple ear infections. I can, however, give some advice on taking meds. Best bet is to lay her on her back with her head bet. your legs (your legs are in a "V"). You place your legs over her arms and legs (her head will kind of be stuck in position due to being in bet. your inner thighs). Use a syringe and squirt towards the very back of her mouth and she won't have much choice but to swallow it. We had to do that with Aaron and Zion both. (Sorry to be so long, call me if you can't visualize). ;)
That's the position I use for the nasal syringe. Thanks for the tip.
Great tip, Beth!
I'm not much on medications, so a month sounds like a long time to be on an antibiotic. However, if it would prevent tubes then probably well worth it.
My tip is pray about it and do what feels right. (Don't you just love those kind of tips.) ;)
Jacob had issues for a long time with fluid and it caused him to not be able to hear well. The doc's wanted us to have the tubes, but after prayer we decided it was not worth the risk and took him to a chiropractor just to see if they had some natural meds. He ended up saying that it could have something to do with his skull plates placement. He adjusted him twice and had him on a natural infection med..."BHI Infection". He has not had a problem since. Some people have issues with doing it natually and chiropractors....but guess what, it worked...no dangerous anesthesia or surgery.
Our current experience sounds like Jenny's, up to the spinal fracturing part. ;-) Our youngest has had hearing problems for a while because of the fluid buildup. We've had her on Singulair for a while trying to keep her allergies (the source of the goo) under control, and to dry the fluid out in her ears. Seems to be working, but we were also near the tubes decision.
Willow goes back to the doctor ina month regardless. I think I will hold off on the meds and see if she can drain the fluids naturally. I think that will help me make better decisions in the future. If it drains, no big deal. If it gets infected, we'll consider her extra sensitive and be more proactive in the future. If the fluid is still there but no infection, we'll see what we need to do about getting it drained. If I medicate her now and it clears up, I won't know if the meds were necessary or if it would have cleared up on her own (not that I enjoy running experiments on an 8 month old).
Those were fun times... the ear, nose and throat specialist looked at us like we were insane or criminal when we came BACK about 4 weeks after our first visit where he told us "you need to put tubes in his ears", and hadn't done it yet.
The doctors like to be feared and obeyed.
Make sure Luke isn't dunking her head in the toilet is my advice.
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