Eli has an ear infection. 
This is his first ear infection. He doesn’t go to daycare, so it is possible to still get an ear infection without being exposed to other kids in a daycare. Bacteria is everywhere.. Where did we get this one, i don’t know.. This one kind of sneaked up on me. Eli did not have a fever, however he had been fussy, not sleeping well and pulling on his ear a lot ( like trying to rub back and forth between his ear and eye). I took his temperature at home and he was 98.1 so pretty normal. He had kept me up most of the day yesterday, this morning he didn’t take his morning nap, only when i held him on my shoulder. Then i decided to dig further. There, he had some yellowish green fluid coming out of his right ear. Man. The eardrum had ruptured…as bad as it sounds, this will heal on it’s own. The body has the ability to heal. It actually gave him relief from all that pressure from the fluid build up. But the stinker to this is when the eardrum ruptures it can result to hearing loss, or other bacteria infections.
I called his pediatrician and the nurse got us in today. His Dr confirmed it was an ear infection. We do have a history of ear infections. Julian had them back to back, the resolution was to get him the ear tubes, since then we never had ear problems with him again.
Basically babies eustachian tubes are smaller and kinda like in a horizontal position, unlike adults who have them almost vertical.. making it easy for any fluids trapped in the middle ear to drain. So when babies have any fluids trapped in the middle ear space, that eustachian tube becomes blocked. now that area becomes a perfect spot for bacteria to breed in. So this is where we are today with Eli. What hurts the most is that pressure from that fluid. It is the reason why kids have a hard time sleeping when they have ear infections.
They are painful. The Dr did not prescribe anything for the pain. He prescribed amoxicillin (an antibiotic) to try to get rid of that bacteria. Typically for pain one would have to take Tylenol or Ibuprofen, but he is only 2 1/2 months old. Plus with the fluid having came out, the Dr thinks he should be ok.
We are on the look out for any fevers, refusal to eat, no wet diapers or just if we feel like he is getting worse, then we would have to take him back in. We had his well baby check up scheduled for this Friday. He would have received his vaccinations then, but we do not know if he will still get them since he is now sick. The Dr still wants us to go in so she can check his ears.
The stinker about using antibiotics is, they get in the system and also gets rid of the good bacteria then if taken too much the body builds immune to them. Then you find yourself making several trips back to the Dr for more antibiotics. This time i am being cautious. If Eli keeps on getting back to back infections, i will ask for the ear tubes right away. I won’t punish him as much as how Julian suffered. I will also try to get him to see same Dr as much as we can, so she can have that history with him. With Julian he saw so many Drs in that office, that one of them looked at his record and told us we needed to go see an ENT asap. That was the best diagnosis i ever received, i swear. I know when you hear ear tubes you get so nervous, your kid will be put under general anethestia and all the things that could go wrong etc..
For us, it was a stop for continous pain that our son was going through. His appointment was set for 8am , the night before his appointment, fwe were told not to feed him anything after midnight. That was tough. Family and friends who know Julian, you got to know this was a big boy then, he loved eating, lol… I should have done what one of my coworkers did with his child. Him and his wife drove around the neighborhood till it was time for their appointment. Their kid actually slept part of the night. Well that night i had to have my husband stay up with Julian, he would see me and reach for the breast. He didn’t understand why i wasn’t feeding him, he cried most of the night.. I was getting emotional, he was crying and i was crying…it was hard.
The procedure itself was roughly 15-30 min. They sucked out a lot of pus from his ears, it was terrible and am glad they didn’t let us in on the surgery. They made us wait in the waiting room… It felt like a lifetime! I sat there praying the entire time. One of the nurses came and offered me coffee and she looked at me and said he will be ok, this is the best thing for him. I know it was, but i had my worries. So, i am sitting here and going through everything that i know with reoccurring ear infections and pray that Eli won’t experience this.
When a kid has fluid in the ear, it is true this does affect their hearing… place both your palms on your ears then try to talk or listen to someone talk. That is how kids with ear infections hear. So if your kid is having all those reoccurring ear infections and this is at the prime where you are trying to teach them, they are trying to learn, i mean it can cause delays. The good news is if any of this issues are caught early, there is intervention, and ENTs can get them on the right track again.
I am Taking Eli back on Friday, so we will see how all goes. For now, mommy will just do what mommy does best. Take care of my baby and hope for the best.
Ear infections. They do stink, but they are treatable!
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