Talk to Me Re: Ear Infections

[sstwinklinglites]

What do you know? I know becole has some experience with this. DS is behaving normally, but I've noticed him messing with his ear, so I'm getting concerned. We have his nine month check - up next week, but if he has an infection I want to get him in there ASAP.

[becole]

We've had ear infections that I didn't know he had at well visits, we've had no ear infection when he was digging in his ear and fussing, and ear infections when it seemed like maybe? based on snot an behavior. The daycare lady says if it's the stringy snot (sorry gross) then that's usually ears. I've had a friend say her son gets high fever (we never had fever with ear infection). They say they scream when you lay them down. Honestly the only sign I saw other than fussing and not sleeping was digging in the same ear.

[becole]

I'm pretty close to ordering one of those dr. Lights and looking in his ears myself with pics of infected ears online. It's so hard to tell.

[sstwinklinglites]

Ok. He's behaving normally and no snot, so maybe he was just scratching? No fever either. He seemed tired though and started giving me sleepy signs, so I put him down for a nap, and he's just crawling all over the crib.

[vlagroupie]

I've noticed DD scratching at her ear sometimes. I've heard it could be because of teething. But if I remember correctly, your LO already has his fair share of teeth, so I would think you might have noticed it before. Not a lot of help here.

[mom2boxers]

We've had 3 maybe 4 infections. He's only had a fever with the last 2. Yucky colored snot, although he's also teething so there's that. Still has a pretty good appetite, but prefers solids over taking his bottles. Recently didn't want to lay down in the crib and had to fall asleep in my arms. A little pulling at his ear, but he also messes around with his hair when he's tired.

I was considering getting one of these just to help me figure out when the doctor is necessary.

www.amazon.com/Original-Doctor-Mom-Otoscope-otoscopes/dp/B000ITD3RA/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1424206435&sr=8-9&keywords=ear+scope

-or-

www.amazon.com/CASE-Third-Generation-Dr-Mom-Stainless/dp/B003Q2NBNW/ref=pd_bxgy_indust_text_y

*Need to look at all the reviews.

[littlelevonloohoo]

L has had 2 ear infections in the last 8 weeks. His "tell" is that he starts shaking his head like he's saying "NO". He never digs in his ears and has not ran a fever either time. The last one he had snotty like discharge from his eyes. I called the nurse line and they said so long as his eyes weren't red it was fine. After 3 days of shaking his head with snotty eyes I took him in and sure enough he had a double ear infection.

We've been battling snot-face since November. Doctor finally put him on Claritin and it seems to help keep that down. A lot of times they can get ear infections because of sinus draining into the ear canals. We'll be doing allergy testing after he's 1 year old.

I usually call the pediatrician's nurse line and explain to them what's going on and let them decide whether to bring him in. We've met our deductible so...

[becole]

Feb 17, 2015 16:03:50 GMT -5 littlelevonloohoo said:

L has had 2 ear infections in the last 8 weeks. His "tell" is that he starts shaking his head like he's saying "NO". He never digs in his ears and has not ran a fever either time. The last one he had snotty like discharge from his eyes. I called the nurse line and they said so long as his eyes weren't red it was fine. After 3 days of shaking his head with snotty eyes I took him in and sure enough he had a double ear infection.

We've been battling snot-face since November. Doctor finally put him on Claritin and it seems to help keep that down. A lot of times they can get ear infections because of sinus draining into the ear canals. We'll be doing allergy testing after he's 1 year old.

I usually call the pediatrician's nurse line and explain to them what's going on and let them decide whether to bring him in. We've met our deductible so...

Sounds like we have the same kid. We're using Zyrtec instead of Claritin. Have you tried both?

He had the snot eyes and nose last week, doctor said his ears were clear and diagnosed pink eye but we still have snot and digging his ears so I'm not convinced.

[becole]

Feb 17, 2015 15:55:36 GMT -5 mom2boxers said:

We've had 3 maybe 4 infections. He's only had a fever with the last 2. Yucky colored snot, although he's also teething so there's that. Still has a pretty good appetite, but prefers solids over taking his bottles. Recently didn't want to lay down in the crib and had to fall asleep in my arms. A little pulling at his ear, but he also messes around with his hair when he's tired.

I was considering getting one of these just to help me figure out when the doctor is necessary.

www.amazon.com/Original-Doctor-Mom-Otoscope-otoscopes/dp/B000ITD3RA/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1424206435&sr=8-9&keywords=ear+scope

-or-

www.amazon.com/CASE-Third-Generation-Dr-Mom-Stainless/dp/B003Q2NBNW/ref=pd_bxgy_indust_text_y

*Need to look at all the reviews.

Ordering this tonight. I had no idea they were that cheap or I would have already done it.

[mrscatfarmer13]

M has never had an ear infection, and frequently messes with his ears. There have been times when we went to the pedi because I was sure he had EI, but his ears were great. Sometimes when he's congested, I think the sinus pressure just bothers his ears. I'm super helpful, I know.

Edit:there isn't an apostrophe in bothers ::facepalm::

[littlelevonloohoo]

Feb 17, 2015 16:26:34 GMT -5 becole said:

Feb 17, 2015 16:03:50 GMT -5 littlelevonloohoo said:

L has had 2 ear infections in the last 8 weeks. His "tell" is that he starts shaking his head like he's saying "NO". He never digs in his ears and has not ran a fever either time. The last one he had snotty like discharge from his eyes. I called the nurse line and they said so long as his eyes weren't red it was fine. After 3 days of shaking his head with snotty eyes I took him in and sure enough he had a double ear infection.

We've been battling snot-face since November. Doctor finally put him on Claritin and it seems to help keep that down. A lot of times they can get ear infections because of sinus draining into the ear canals. We'll be doing allergy testing after he's 1 year old.

I usually call the pediatrician's nurse line and explain to them what's going on and let them decide whether to bring him in. We've met our deductible so...

Sounds like we have the same kid. We're using Zyrtec instead of Claritin. Have you tried both?

He had the snot eyes and nose last week, doctor said his ears were clear and diagnosed pink eye but we still have snot and digging his ears so I'm not convinced.

Our Pedi recommended Claritin.  We figured we'd start there.  He's on 2ml's every night before bed.  He wanted us to try Claritin for 30 days before switching it up.  We're just about to the 30 day mark and I have to say it's helped a lot.   I wanted to start allergy testing earlier, but the doc said that it could be coincidental that the snot seems to get better and he'd prefer to do the testing once he's had exposure to 4 seasons. 

L had snotty eyes like big time.  When we finally got in to see the Pedi on call she said he had a tear duct infection as well as the ear infection.  He's just been a big gross snot encrusted jerk baby for a while.

[sstwinklinglites]

Ok. Thanks for all the advice. Maybe I overreacted because he hasn't messed with his ears anymore and he seems just fine. DS shakes his head no at everything since he was like four months old, but the playing with the ears thing was new so I thought maybe ei.

[becole]

If there's no snot/ regular cold sstwinklinglites then I think you're good. It's figuring out is this just a cold or an ear infection? Cold comes first.