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Moms View Message Board: Parenting Discussion: Archive July-December 2003: Another Ear question
This may sound odd, but how do you all know when your dk's have and ear infection. Ds is 2 and has never to my knowledge had one. Will he be getting some? Not that I'm looking forward to it, but I just don't want to overlook anything. TIA
I think this is one of the most understood parts of parenting. We have been all taught that kids just get ear infections. Well the truth is, some do. Some kids just get sick more often (day care, lots of kid exposure, etc). When a child gets sick their eustacean tubes are shorter and they get ear infections quicker than adults. However, if you have a child that is very rarely sick I would not expect ear infections. Typically when a child has several in a year there is a cause, sometimes it is just lots of exposure, sometimes it is allergies, or some other immune system issue. I have 3 kids, my first had tons of ear infections, I thought oh that is normal, finally had a doc say "NO it isn't normal!" Ran some tests, found out she was allergic to soy and corn, removed those from her diet and she only had one other ear infection in the next 5 years. My other children both have had one or two related to be sick with something else.
Sometimes the symptoms are unmistakable: waking up crying while pulling at the ear, fever, refusing to lay on the side that hurts. Other times, you don't know until the doctor looks in the ear. It usually follows a cold or upper respiratory illness, or when the child is congested because of allergies. I was told that young children are more prone to them because the Eustachan (sp?) tube is short in younger kids and the fluid builds up instead of draining. If you haven't seen any signs, I wouldn't worry.
There is no way to know for sure unless you visit the Dr. for an ear check, or if you have an ear scope and know what to look for. However, I've learned to trust my mommy instincts and usually *know* when my kids have one just by their symptoms and behavior. It differs from child to child. Some kids get lots of infections and some don't. My son didn't get his first ear infection until he was 3, and then he got them repeatedly. *Knock on wood* he's been fine for awhile now and I hope it continues that way. DD got her first ear infection at 5 mos.. She gets them once in awhile but not often. My kids are now both old enough to tell me their ears hurt but when they were little it was harder to determine. Usually if they had a fever and were unexplainable fussy, especially at night, good chance it was an ear infection. It's possible to have an infection, however, even if there is no fever.
I can tell Ds has an ear infection because he stopped drinking his bottle and later stopped using the sippy cup. He also is crabby. Never had fevers, nor pulled on his ears, and up until this time he didn't have trouble sleeping.
My first ds never had an ear infection until he was 4. This was the only one he has ever had. Now my youngest ds is another story. He had alot of them when he was 1. He ended up getting tubes in his ears right before he turned 2. I always knew he had one when he wouldn't sleep at night. He never pulled his ears, ran a fever or acted crabby.
With DD, I can smell an odor from her ears. Then, she is usually extremely irratible as well! There is usually nothing I can do to make her happy. Then, we know it's teeth if she is putting her fingers in her mouth or her ears.
My dd had ear infections with absolutely no symptoms. We'd find out when we went to the dr for a regular app't. Then, we did some hearing tests and found out she had a double ear infection with no symptoms.
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