What Do I Do About A Baby Ear Infection
The one time you should worry about your babys ears beyond the very basic care mentioned above is if they have an ear infection. Signs that your baby could have an ear infection include sudden hearing problems, liquid draining out of the ears, or baby clutching at their ears in pain. Other symptoms of an ear infection may include fussiness, fever, and trouble sleeping.
An ear infection happens behind your babys eardrum in the middle of their ear. Many ailments can cause one, like a cold or the flu. If that fluid doesnt drain properly or theres swelling in the nasal passage, it can increase your childs risk of infection. To avoid that pain for your baby, dont lay your child down with a bottle or pacifier in their mouth. Secondhand cigarette smoke can also increase the chances of your nugget getting an infection.
If you suspect your baby has an ear infection , call your pediatrician. That way, they can get your baby on the medication they need ASAP.
Remedies For Water In Ear
Water in the ears can cause a feeling of fullness in the ear and impair hearing. This can be an extremely uncomfortable feeling. If suffering with these feelings after a bath or a swim, you should try and remove as much of the water from your ear as soon as possible. This will prevent bacteria build-up. Here are some easy ways in which you can clear the water from your ear.
- Tilt the head, from side to side. If the feeling is present in the left ear, tilt the head to the left and hit the opposite side with your palm. Dry the outer ear well. You can also use a special ear drier.
- Add more water. This may not sound like a good idea, but it works to get rid of excess water in the ear. Lie down and have someone, using a dropper, squeeze a few drops of water into the affected ear. Once done, turn immediately to the other side. You can feel the water pour out of your ear.
- Apply pressure. Lay on the bed with your head hanging off the side of the bed, with the affected ear facing down. Put your palm tight against the affected ear and then let go. This has a suction effect and helps pull out the excess water in the ear.
- Try putting rubbing alcohol. The application of 2 to 3 drops of rubbing alcohol in the ear and turning 3 seconds later to the other side can drain excess water.
- Try over-the-counter medication.
Ear Infection Signs And Symptoms
The telltale sign of an ear infection is pain in and around the ear. Young children can develop ear infections before they are old enough to talk. That means parents are often left guessing why their child appears to be suffering. When your child can’t say “my ear hurts,” the following signs suggest an ear infection could be the culprit:
- Tugging or pulling the ear
- Crying and irritability
- Fever, especially in younger children
- Fluid draining from the ear
- Loss of balance
- Difficulty hearing or responding to auditory cues
Signs that require immediate attention include high fever, severe pain, or bloody or pus-like discharge from the ears.
Johns Hopkins Pediatric Otolaryngology
Our pediatric otolaryngologists are committed to providing compassionate and comprehensive care for children with ear, nose, and throat conditions. As part of the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, you have access to all the specialized resources of a children’s hospital. Your child will also benefit from experts who use advanced techniques to treat both common and rare conditions.
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What To Do If Your Child Gets Swimmers Ear
After spending a lot of time in the water, the ear can get infected by whats called swimmers ear. If your child complains of earaches, particularly during the summer, swimmers ear is most likely the cause. Pediatrician Dr. Cindy Gellner talks about what you can do to help relieve your childs ear pain and when to go to the doctor.
What Are The Signs Of Swimmer’s Ear
Ear pain is the main sign of swimmer’s ear. It can be severe and gets worse when the outer part of the ear is pulled or pressed on. It also may be painful to chew. Sometimes the ear canal itches before the pain begins.
Swelling of the ear canal might make a child complain of a full or uncomfortable feeling in the ear. The outer ear may look red or swollen, and lymph nodes around the ear can get enlarged and tender. Sometimes, there’s discharge from the ear canal this might be clear at first and then turn cloudy, yellowish, and pus-like.
Hearing might be temporarily affected if pus or swelling blocks the passage of sound into the ear. Fever isn’t typical in most cases.
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What To Do When Your Child Has Swimmers Ear
Tips for Swimmers Ear Treatment and Prevention
Swimmers ear is a common infection that can make summertime miserable for kids. Also known as otitis externa, it most commonly occurs when water gets trapped in your childs ears after swimming or showering, creating the perfect conditions for bacterial growth that infects the skin of the outer ear canal. Now that swimming weather is here again and day trips to Galveston or the Hill Country are coming up for families all over Texas, its important for parents to be prepared for swimmers ear and take precautions to make sure their children can enjoy their summer vacation without a painful ear infection.
How do I know if my child has swimmers ear?Anyone can get swimmers ear if they arent careful. While the symptoms are usually mild at first, they may get worse if left untreated. Mild symptoms include:
- Itching in the ear canal
- Slight redness inside the ear
- Mild discomfort thats made worse by pulling or pushing on the outer areas of the ear and
- Some drainage of a clear, odorless fluid.
Its always best to keep an eye out for these early swimmers ear symptoms and schedule a doctors appointment to diagnosis the condition and devise a treatment. If left untreated, the symptoms will continue to worsen, leading to more severe pain, fever, muffled hearing, blockage of the ear canal, and a discharge of pus.
If your child has swimmers ear, schedule a doctors appointment.
How Are Middle Ear Infections Diagnosed
Your family doctor will ask questions about your child’s recent and past health and examine your child’s ears. To do this they will use an instrument called an otoscope to look at your child’s ear canal and eardrum. An otoscope contains both a small powerful light and a low power magnifying lens.
Most infants and children do not like having their ears examined. To make it easier, your doctor will probably encourage you to hold your child on your lap and hug their arms and body while your doctor looks inside your child’s ear. Checking your child’s ears should not be painful. Make sure to hold your child securely. If your child moves during this examination it can be painful for them and make it more difficult to examine their ears both now and in the future.
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Trying Alcohol And Vinegar
A homemade ear drop combining rubbing alcohol and white vinegar in equal proportion helps ear to get rid of that trapped water. It also acts as an anti-bacterial medication as helps in keeping growth of bacteria at bay and thus prevents infection. Pour a tablespoon of this ear drop into your ear and let it drain out after 30 seconds tilting your head sideways. While the acid breakdown cerumen trapping the water, alcohol helps in taking out the water along with it.
How Do You Prevent It
If you’ve got water in your ears after you swim or bathe, you can wear over-the-counter earplugs, or talk to your hearing healthcare professional about purchasing a set of ear plugs designed for use in the water. These plugs may be more expensive than the typical foam ear plugs purchased at the drugstore however, they can be custom-fit your ears and are washable and reusable.
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How Do I Get Water Out Of My Ears
Contributed by Debbie Clason, staff writer, Healthy HearingLast updated May 11, 20202020-05-11T00:00:00-05:00
Playing in the water can be fun for people of all ages. While summer is a great time to enjoy swimming to its fullest, all of the splashing around can occasionally lead to water getting trapped in your ears. Symptoms include a feeling of fullness in the ear canal and a sensation that water is jostling around in your ear. It can happen in one or both ears.
Sometimes tilting your head to the sideis all it takes to remove water in your ears.
When the water doesnt trickle out on its own, it may lead to a case of otitis externa, an ear infection also known as swimmers ear.
Bathing An Older Baby
When your baby is able to sit independently, you may like to bathe him using the family bath. The same principles of bathing apply to an older baby as they do to a newborn, i.e. face first, then hair followed by other body parts. However, now that he can sit and you no longer need to support his body, this can all be done while your baby is sitting in the bathtub.
The most difficult part in bathing an older baby is hair washing. Most babies do not like water running down their face as their hair is being rinsed. Because soap can sting your baby’s eyes you need to avoid getting soapy water on his face. There are a couple of different ways you can go about this…
- Using a dry washcloth, fold it into quarters and cover your child’s eyes with this, holding it firmly under your hand as you gently tip some water from a plastic cup over his head.
- You can buy a special plastic ring that is designed to be used when washing children’s hair. This is placed around your child’s head to protect his face from the water as you rinse his hair.
Only use shampoo designed for babies , some adult shampoos will sting little eyes.
NEVER leave baby in the bath alone.
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Rubbing Alcohol And Vinegar
Rubbing alcohol and vinegar is an age-old home remedy to get rid of fluid in the ear.
While the antibacterial properties of vinegar will help kill germs present in the ear, rubbing alcohol helps dry up the water in the ear.
Just Keep Swimming: Research Update On Ear Tubes And Water Exposure
As summer comes into full swing, the activities associated with summer fun peak our excitement for pool days, slip-n-slides, and water parks. However, for the ear infection-plagued children of the world, water fun can quickly turn into excruciating ear pain and two weeks of antibiotic eardrops. As ear infections run rampant in children, common procedures are becoming even more ordinary for medical professionals.
One of the most common pediatric outpatient procedures today is a tympanostomy tube insertion used to drain fluid from the middle ear. Commonly associated with reduction of repeat ear infections, the tiny tubes also help decrease the risk of hearingloss. After an ear infection, children normally retain fluid in the ear that usually goes away on its own, but guidelines currently surrounding ear tubes suggest if this fluid lasts for more than three months, a child should be considered for ear tubes. Nevertheless, despite the knowledge circulating around ear tubes and implantation, little awareness surrounds the discussion of tympanostomy tubes and swimming.
Commonly, children with ear tubes are advised to use the following items to prevent water from entering the ear canal and possible disrupting the tube:
- Earplugs
- Water resistant headbands
- Complete water abstinence
For links to more recent research on tympanostomy tubes and swimming visit:
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What To Do When Baby Gets Sick: 7 Solutions
Use our guide to treat Babywhether she has a fever or the flu. We’ll help you decide when to push the worrying aside, and when to call the doctor.
My son has always been a happy, easygoing kid. But at 4 months, Samuel was really cranky for a few days. I called the pediatrician’s office, and the nurse said it sounded like teething. That, though, didn’t seem right, so I asked to come in for a doctor’s take. I felt awkward. After all, I’d been a mom for a fraction of this nurse’s career. Who was I to second-guess someone with so much experience?
What I didn’t consider was that I’d developed my own expertise on Samuel. I could differentiate his feed-me wails from his cuddle-me whimpers and his I’m-so-sleepy sobs. Turns out, he wasn’t teething. He had an ear infection, one we were able to catch and treat early.
Indeed, parents can help docs diagnose properly. “To understand when a baby is sick, you have to understand what he’s like when he’s welland that’s something a parent knows best,” says Paul Horowitz, M.D., a pediatrician in Santa Clarita, California. Follow this guide to common childhood illnesses, how to treat them, and when to see the doctor.
Where Can I Find Additional Information About Ear Infections
The NIDCD maintains a directory of organizations that provide information on the normal and disordered processes of hearing, balance, smell, taste, voice, speech, and language.
Use the following keywords to help you search for organizations that can answer questions and provide printed or electronic information on ear infections:
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Donts For Getting Water Out Of Your Ears
Using the wrong methods for getting water out of your ears can scratch your ear canal or impact earwax in the canal. Donât use these methods for drying out your ears, or you will be more — not less — likely to get an infection.
- Avoid cotton swabs. They can pack earwax and dirt down in your ear canal, remove the wax that protects your ear, disrupt the natural bacteria in the ear canal, or irritate the thin skin of the ear canal.
- Donât stick your finger or fingernails in your ears. You can scratch the delicate skin of the ear canal.
- Donât use hydrogen peroxide or drying drops if you or your child has ear tubes or if you have a ruptured eardrum.
Using Inner Ear Wax Removal Eardrops
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When To Seek Help
Let your babys pediatrician know if your infant is tugging at their ears. If you dont already have a pediatrician, you can browse doctors in your area through the Healthline FindCare tool. Also let them know if you suspect a blocked ear canal is making it difficult for your baby to hear you, or if you notice any yellow-green discharge from your childs ear.
Your doctor may remove the wax if its causing discomfort, pain, or interfering with hearing.
A pediatrician can usually remove the wax during a regular office appointment without requiring any further treatment. In rare cases, the wax may need to be removed under general anesthesia in the operating room.
If your pediatrician notices signs of an ear infection, they may prescribe antibiotic eardrops for your baby.
Seek medical help right away if you notice bleeding from the ear after an object was inserted in the ear canal. You should also seek medical help if your child looks or acts very sick, or their walking is unsteady.
Types Of Ear Discharge
- Pus or Cloudy Fluid. This is the most common type of ear discharge. The main cause is an ear infection. The drainage is from a torn eardrum. The eardrum ruptures in about 10% of bacterial ear infections.
- Ear Tube Fluid Release. Children with frequent ear infections may get ventilation tubes put in. These help the middle ear drain its fluids and become dry. Sometimes, the ear tube gets plugged up. Normal fluids build up in the middle ear until the ear tube opens up again. This can cause some clear fluid drainage from the ear canal for a day.
- Earwax. Earwax is light brown, dark brown, or orange brown in color. If it gets wet, it can look like a discharge.
- Blood. This follows an injury to the ear. Usually, it’s just a minor scratch of the lining of the ear canal.
- Water. Bath water or tears can get in the ear canal. Seeing a clear “discharge” that happens once is likely this.
- Ear Drops. The person who sees the discharge may not know someone else put in drops.
- Swimmer’s Ear Discharge. Early symptoms are an itchy ear canal. Later symptoms include a whitish, watery discharge. Mainly occurs in swimmers and in the summer time.
- Ear Canal Foreign Object. Young children may put small objects in their ear canal. It can cause a low grade infection and pus colored discharge. If the object was sharp, the discharge may have streaks of blood.
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