My 10 year old has an ear ache. Tylenol is not working. I have no heating pads and no rice to make one. What can I do for him?
By Kristin C.
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Here is a trick that they taught me on a flight when my daughter was young; I used it after that many, many times. They took a paper cup (you use one that you have) that it closest to the fit of out side of the ear. In the bottom put paper towel (use a rag) that is wet but rung out.
They put it in the microwave long enough to heat the water making steam. Put cup over the ear the steam seem to always help. Make sure all of the water is absorbed. You can keep repeating this over and over. Steam helps, I'm sure the flight attendants had more ear aches then I had to deal with.
The other thing I did with my youngest was put heated oil (olive, baby, mineral) in his ear, immediately had him lay on the that side, (so it drained out not getting into the ear drum). I wouldn't do this without a Dr. saying it was OK. Daniel was special needs so we always was having to do different things with him.
Have you thought of heating a towel or something like that in the microwave (or oven); using it like a heating pad. I can remember hot water bottles working better for me than heating pads many times. Just be careful not too hot.
Good luck, I pray one of these work. Steam would be 1st, if you don't have a microwave just use hot water. Hot enough to create the steam.
Your son's earache could be cause by fluid in his ears, also known as "swimmer's ear". It's not just from swimming, it could also be caused by water getting in his ear while showering or bathing.
An ear infection can cause temporary hearing problems. Temporary speech and language problems can also occur. If left untreated, these problems can become more serious. An untreated ear infection may lead to permanent hearing impairment.
Above information was taken from the website.
ear.emedtv.com/
NEVER PUT YOUR CHILD/CHILDREN'S HEALTH OR SAFETY IN HARMS-WAY TO SAVE MONEY!
I surely hope that there are others that feel the same way that I do.
He needs a doctor. Home remedies won't help and may allow him to get worse.
I think you should take your child to the doctor if he has an unexplained ear ache and the pain is so severe that you can't relieve it with Tylenol. If you live in Canada, there is no reason not to take this child to a doctor.
First, if he's in pain & you can't take him to a doctor because it's night or a weekend - you can give him ibuprofen, which will help the pain better than the Tylenol. But if he has a regular doctor, you should still call them or take him in if his ear hurts the next day.
It's no longer standard practice for doctors to automatically treat ear infections with antibiotics anymore. If there is a lot of pus or swelling of the eardrum, indicating that it might burst, then a doctor will treat it. Other than that, the recommended treatment now is to treat the pain & wait a week to see if it resolves itself - because if it's a viral infection, antibiotics won't work & the bacteria that causes ear infections are becoming antibiotic resistant.
Many doctors are still prescribing antibiotics automatically, but many more (including my kids' pediatrician) won't. I know the 1st couple of times this happened, I was frantic with worry that it was going to cause serious damage or the pain would be intolerable. It wasn't, & it usually did resolve itself. A few times, antibiotics were needed.
Before you do any home treatment, you really need to know what's gong on. If possible, you should take him to the doctor.If you put anything in his ear & he has a perforated eardrum, it's going to be extremely painful & cause BIG problems!
They sell otoscopes in drug stores now, so you can look in your child's ear like the doctors do & see what's going on in there. But if you don't know what you're looking at, it won't help. I was trained to know what to look for, & with one of my kids I was even able to see his eardrum with just a flashlight!
If it's something like "swimmer's ear" (which you can get from showering too), you can tell by tugging on the ear. Swimmer's ear is an infection in the ear canal & it hurts to tug on the ear, sometimes the ear itself is red & hot.
They sell medicated ear drops that are supposed to stop the pain of ear infections until the infection is gone. It never worked on my kids, they cried & said it hurt worse. Other people have told me it works great on their kids & now it's sold over the counter.
Like I said, ibuprofen for the pain. Tylenol doesn't always work, try it first, but switch if it's not helping. They used to prescribe decongestants to drain the fluid when my 1st son ended up having to have tubes in his ears. Now they say that's not good, they tell you to give them benadryl to help dry it up. Ibuprofen & benadryl helped the pain quite a bit with my youngest, who nearly had to have tubes in his ears too.
If he has allergies, sinus congestion can cause the ear to hurt as much as an infection. Treating the allergies relieves the ear pain.
All of the other home remedy suggestions you've received are good too, I've used them with varying degrees of success - except the cup with warm cloth in it,never heard of that, great idea! Sometimes it helps to put a piece of cotton or toilet paper in the ear to keep it warm.
The bottom line is, you don't want your son to suffer needlessly. If he's in a lot of pain that can't be helped with Tylenol, ibuprofen & benadryl, you need to take him to a doctor.
If he doesn't have a history of ear infections - you need to take him in to be sure it's not something else.
If the otc medication helps, but he's still hurting for more than a couple of days - you need to take him in. Untreated ear infections might clear up on their own, but those that don't resolve themselves CAN have serious consequences.
I know that telling you to take him to a doctor is easier said than done if finances are bad and/or you don't have insurance. It's real easy for someone to condemn you for not taking your kids (or self) to the doctor asap for everything, if they've never had the experience of not having the resources to pay for it. Sometimes your income is just a bit too high to qualify for assistance, but you're living hand to mouth just the same & something like this can make or break you.
I don't know if you posted this question just because your son developed an earache when doctors weren't in office, or if you can't afford to take him in. If it's the latter, there are community resources to help people with any income get the medical treatment they need. If you post about that & give your city, I'm sure you'd get more helpful answers than you could ever imagine!
I hope your son's ear pain has subsided by the time you red all these messages & he's happy & healthy now! Good Luck!
We pour a capful of peroxide in our ears and let it boil the infection, until it quits boiling. Maybe about 10 minutes. Pollen settles in our ears when it runs high. This really helps. My husband had a nurse at the doctors office tell him this years ago. He had alot of ear infections. Now, no more doctor visits.
We pour a capful of peroxide in our ears and let it boil the infection, until it quits boiling. Maybe about 10 minutes. Pollen settles in our ears when it runs high. This really helps. My husband had a nurse at the doctors office tell him this years ago. He had alot of ear infections. Now, no more doctor visits.
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