My Ear Infection Protocol

We have had our fair share of ear infections at our house.  Several cases a year probably.  I used to run to the doctor at the first sign of one, but, in the last 4 or 5 years, we have treated them at home.   There is certainly a point where medical intervention is necessary, but we have rarely needed it.  

I changed my frame of mind a few years ago when the study referred to in this great article below came to light:

"This study reviewed 125 previous studies on the effect of antibiotics vs placebo, and found that 80 percent of children with ear infections would recover within about 3 days without antibiotics. If all of the children were treated with antibiotics, then another 12 percent would improve in three days. However, 3 to 10 percent of the children would develop diarrhea (Coker 2010). The authors could not assess the long term effect of antibiotic treatment on antibiotic resistance and further infections based on the data, but some studies have shown that children treated with antibiotics tend to develop resistance to antibiotics and have more ear infections than children not treated. This makes sense because antibiotics interfere with the production of white blood cells. When white blood cells are unable to fight infections, then recurrence of an infection is more likely.

Antibiotics for ear infections are the number one reason why antibiotics are prescribed for children.  Taking antibiotics present many risks, not the least of which is killing off good bacteria in the body, letting yeast and mold over grow in the body introducing a whole host of problems, like increasing the likelihood of future ear infections, eczema, and illness and digestive disorders.

What to do instead?

 Homeopathy and herbal medicine have been effectively treating ear infections for hundreds, even thousands, of years. A double-blind clinical study of the homeopathic treatment for ear infections showed a significant decrease in symptoms after 24 hours compared with the placebo-treated children (Jacobs 2001). Chinese herbal medicine offers especially effective treatment for ear infections in children, including formulas specifically developed for pediatric use (Neustaedter 2010; Fratkin). With these alternatives available and the evidence from numerous studies of antibiotic failure, it seems that the era of prescribing antibiotics for children’s ear infections should be relegated to the past." Source

Here's the protocol we use at our house lately that seems to get through an infection quickly and comfortably:

First of all, all moms need an otoscope.  You need to be able to get a look at what is going on.  Kids don't always know what is going on with their body.  It is very easy to take a look and see if it is red in there or not.  I like the Dr. Mom brand which only costs about $15. 

 

Once we have a diagnosis, I run to the kitchen and grab some coconut oil.  It is antibacterial and antiviral.  By the way, if you haven't tried coconut oil yet, you are missing out.  It is spendy, but great for you. It is easy to find at health food stores, just look for the sales. For the ears you need to barely warm it up so that it is in liquid form. 

Then I use a spoon or dropper and put a few drops in the infected ear(s) while they lay on their side.  I gently pull on the ear lobe to help it go in farther. I put a piece of cotton in the ear to keep the oil from dripping out.  This is usually very soothing because it keeps air from irritating the ear drum. I have them lie still for at least 5 minutes.

I used to use olive oil which worked well too.  There are also drops you can buy at the health food store that work great, but I love the properties in coconut oil.

 

Lastly, I have the child lay on a heating pad.  This is theraputic and instantly calming.  I will often put them in between us in bed and use it all night. 

There are lots of remedies out there, but this is what I swear by.  Usually within minutes, my sick child's pain is low and almost always back to there normal self by morning.  If they develop a high fever or fluid coming out of their ears, I call the doctor. This simply doesn't happen when we catch it quickly though.I find that now I put off antibiotics for other infections as well with home treatments instead and get similar results.

Things Husbands Say

I want to remember this story, but it is with love and humor and with permission from Peter that I am writing it down.  This was probably the second most "guy" type thing that Peter has ever said to me.

It follows only the time in the night when I thought I was in labor and told Peter that I didn't know what to do, and he replied, "Just go back to sleep, that's what I am going to do."

I was having a really bad day (um, more like month) the other day and Peter could tell.  He came home from work.  I was exhausted and frazzled as we loaded the kids into the van and headed out to meet up with family and friends to play Ultimate frisbee and play at a park.

 I was trying not to rub off on anyone else, but Peter could tell I was upset so he asked me to tell him about it.  I said, "Are you sure? Do you really want to hear it all?" He assured me that he really wanted to know so he could help me. 

So, I quietly unloaded all my earthly cares on him for about 5 minutes while we drove.  I described the events of the day and all my feelings.  When I was done, I stopped talking and waited for his reaction.

There was a pause.

I waited.

Then he said, "I hope someone remembers to bring a frisbee."   

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All I could say was , "REALLY?" I began to see red.

Peter then realized what he had done.  He was just as surprised at his timing as I was.  He said, "Woah, that sounded really bad!" 

Uhhhh, Yeah!!!!

As he started to back peddle a little, I started laughing.  I could not stop.  It was just so bad it was funny!  Every time Peter started to say something to make it not so bad, I just laughed more. 

In the end I couldn't be mad because, it was just a guy moment and I felt better from laughing so hard.  Not exactly what I was aiming for, but it worked.

I know Peter's heart and he would never ever try to hurt me in any way.  I think that's why it was not a big deal.  But it was so funny that it is definitely going down in my history book.

Plus, I have been able to tease him about it with great satisfaction ever since whenever he tells me something important.  My automatic response is (with a smile) "I hope someone remembers to bring a frisbee."  It's awesome.

The End.

Ski Time

Even though we have been out on the lake several times lately, this was my first time to ski this year. Its been a while since I was preggers last summer. I was pretty rusty but got up right away.  Then I tried getting up on one ski.  I tried and tried until my arms felt thoroughly pulled from their sockets and had no success.  Those are some nice white legs though. Blinding!

Peter and Eden:



Peter and Tanner.  I swear his smile was this big the whole time:





And our wild flower.  Lily loves to be in the lake.  She has to be restrained from jumping right in.  She is ALWAYS up for a turn.



waving. (Peter is a stud muffin)

Andy and Tanner:

Beach Camping, aka my 1000th Post!

Camping+Beach=Match made in heaven! And it was a ward campout too.  We had a great weekend.  We left early enough on Friday to visit Tillamook Cheese Factory.  We watch cheese being packaged, sampled cheese, lost Lily and got paged via loudspeaker, and at ice cream.
















We checked into our campground and headed right for the beach for those last couple hours of warm summer play.  It was nice and warm.












There were lots of other kids from church playing too so the kids had lots of people to play with.



Carter and his best friend from church.  They are 2 peas.

































Cold salty water hurts when sand is irritating your skin!









































Mermaids!
 






We had a huge ward bon fire that night and then tried to sleep.  Lily woke up at 4 and never went back to sleep! She woke Luke and Carter up too. When Peter and Dallin got up to go fishing at 5:30 I sent her with them so we could get more sleep. After breakfast, we headed to the beach for a sand castle contest. It was fun to come over the little hill and see a landscape of ward memebers:

We made a Spiderman for Tanner:

And a toilet for Dallin.




I could not stop taking pictures of Lil. She is just so fun to watch as she explores.




I came across this too.  I was like, Hey, I know her!

After we packed up and headed out we went to the little nearbye fish hatchery.  This little lake had huge rainbow trout that we could feed. 

Inside there were thousands of smaller something or others.

Then all the tired little people (and me) took naps while we made the drive up to Seaside.  By the time we got there we were rested and ready for more fun.  So we rented this bike thing for an hour and got a great workout.  These are really fun and the kids loved it.

Then we rode the Tilt-a-Whirl. 



Dallin didn't catch a fish in the morning to we decided to go to the crabbing bridge and try again.







It took about a half hour, but he was successful!

We were only gone a day and a half, but we packed in as much as we could.  We love the beach and can't wait to go camping at Cape Lookout again!
Woah 1000 posts and 1000 great memories.  I will never regret making time to write about living in the moment.  Blogging is the BEST!