Ear infections are often a complication of a common cold or other upper respiratory infection. A child will sometimes have a runny nose, a cough, sore throat, and occasionally vomiting and diarrhea. An older child will tell you their ear hurts or feels full. An infant may pull or hit their ears or just be irritable with a slight fever. Recently, my three year old had a sore throat one or two days, then a slight fever one day, then wasn't sleeping well...she finally told me her ear hurt in the middle of the night.
Conventional treatment is antibiotics. I have one thing to say about antibiotics: They will ONLY work to fight a bacterial infection NOT anything viral. Antibiotics will kill ALL biotics you have in your body; good and bad. This is why it is so common for a child or adult to have chronic ear infections if treated with an antibiotic and no probiotics to restore balance.
So what if your child has this...
You will need the following: (We keep these things in our house at all times)
Vitamin C Chewables
Garlic Cloves
Olive Oil
Zinc chews or lozenges
Echinacea / Goldenseal combo in liquid form
First we PRAY! We pray for God's healing and if The Father decides not to heal us or our child instantly then we pray for Him to boost our immune system and to be with us in our natural treatment. It is good for our body to fight sickness...I will repeat...IT IS GOOD FOR OUR BODY TO FIGHT SICKNESS...our body needs to exercise and build our immune systems. How can it do that if we only break it down with back to back immunizations, antibiotics, and medicine to stop symptoms (which are signals that your body is fighting something and sometimes helping to fight)
During acute infection (the day you either self diagnose or a doctor does) give one dose every 2 hours of Vitamin C and Echinacea / Goldenseal. *You will need to determine what the child dose is of course. I think a good rule of thumb is to take the adult dose and divide either by 3 or by weight. I break a Vitamin C chewable in half or fourths for a child's dose. My 3yr old gets 5 drops and my 5 yr old gets 10 drops of Echinacea / Goldenseal.* Sometimes instead of a chewable I drop the Echinacea / Goldenseal in real Oj like Simply Orange Juice.
About 3 times a day heat a fresh garlic clove in olive oil and, with your child lying on his/her side, put one or two drops of warm (not hot!) oil into the affected ear.
Give your child zinc-based lozenges, two to three times a day, as needed. Again...figure out the child dose for what you have bought! I've used a chew that I cut in half and a lozenge cut in half (this one can be tricky! Watch your fingers!).
After symptoms have eased reduce your treatments but continue for about a week. We usually go down to Vit C 3x a day, Echinacea / Goldenseal 3x a day, no drops, and Zinc 1x a day.
We usually avoid breaking fevers because your body uses a fever to kill off infection but when you're dealing with a child and painful ears you don't have many options. First try a cold or warm compress on the painful ear and see if that relieves the discomfort. If not use a child's pain reliever.
When your child lays down the pain/ fullness may get worse so try propping your child up a bit. Miss Adventure hadn't slept well in days which means I had not either so I finally slept on the couch at an angle to let her sleep one night. Her body fought so much better with that night's sleep and you could totally tell the next day!
I am NOT a doctor or nurse so it is up to you how long you want to wait to see a doctor or use antibiotics. I've treated my son this way and he was fine in 48 hours. My daughter just recently took about 8 or 9 days to recover. At day 7 I was considering taking her in but chose to wait until we hit day 10. We never had to go in.
IF you do decide to use antibiotics make sure you are using probiotics for balance and to prevent your child or yourself some getting sick right after your cycle is done. I personally will use antibiotics in the morning and at night but use probiotics in the afternoon.
We believe the Lord gave our bodies the amazing ability to heal itself of almost anything. I hope this helps anyone wanting to exercise this ability :)
