Earaches: How to Relieve the Pain, Speed Healing, and Calm the Screaming
There’s a great advantage to having a few natural therapies for earaches in your medicine chest, as they can often help relieve pain even more quickly than antibiotics. One study found that the pathogen causing ear infections, clinically known as acute otitis media (AOM), is bacterial 92% of the time, viral 70%, and 66% of the time is both bacteria and viruses. This at least partly explains the common pattern of frequent reoccurrences once antibiotics are started; by definition antibiotics are completely ineffective against viruses. Interestingly, the natural course of an ear infection is to heal in 7-10 days with or without antibiotics. The most effective long-term results are found with lifestyle and dietary changes, and also in strengthening your kids’ immune systems so their healthy microbiome (their inner terrain not altered or reduced from antibiotics) is able to robustly respond to viral and bacterial pathogens.
Earaches 101
1. Earaches are especially common after the holidays, because ear infections more easily take hold with:
Excessive sugar
Insufficient or disrupted sleep
Cold and/or damp wind on necks and ears.
2. So, for both prevention and taking action at the first sign of symptoms:
Less sugar, or even better none. It’s super important to eliminate sugar if there are even the slightest hint of symptoms, as it feeds these pathogens!
More naps, early bedtimes, and pulling back on packed schedules
Keep necks warm (even indoors) with turtleneck shirts, bandanas, or silk scarves. You’ll be surprised how efffective this is.
3. Probiotics. And more probiotics.
Earaches are at least partly rooted in gut compromise, as are so many immune issues
Healthy bacteria in the gut is essential for normal immune function, so boosting microbiome health is a foundational treatment. Supplemental probiotics and/or using ‘live cultured foods’ like sauerkraut as a condiment are especially valuable ways to rebuild if your patient has ever had antibiotics (including through their mother at birth). Studies have shown that the microbiome is still altered even 31 months after a single round of antibiotics, which is when the study concluded and they stopped checking.
Sorry, yogurt is not the best choice, as dairy’s mucus qualities can complicate this clogged ear thing for some people. Also, since few kids will eat it plain, the sugar is an issue again.
An excellent probiotic when there’s tendency towards ear infections is Biotics Research Children’s ENT-Pro lozenges. This link gives you assess (Biotics is a practitioner-only brand) in my earache protocol on Fullscript, my on-line pharmacy source, which is privacy protected.
4. Keep their bowels moving.*
It’s hard to move the illness out if nothing is moving out, if you get my drift. Respiratory symptoms are lessened with optimal bowel health. You could start with applesauce, veggie juices, magnesium supplements, epson salt baths, or less processed foods to help your child normalize at 1-3 ample bowel movements/day.
5. More fluids, especially warm drinks.*
Herbal teas or broths are very helpful. Avoid sweet ones like hot chocolate, or at least use 100% honey or real maple syrup.
*There’s a lot of great info about how to get fluids into kids and how keep their bowels moving in my on-line course for moms, Get Well Soon.
6. Hylands Homeopathic Ear Drops
These can be administered orally in their mouth or topically in their ears. Usually quick results, love these!
Homeopathy is a profoundly effective approach based on individual symptoms; specifics are detailed in Get Well Soon.
7. Rest the offending ear on a hot water bottle or heating pad.
8. A highly diluted essential oil could be considered topically.
Look to oils such as Melrose, Tea Tree, or an immune blend from your favorite company (Revive is fabulous in quality and price, not an affiliate link.)
Dilute 1-2 drops to 1 tablespoon of a carrier oil; coconut is fine, or even sesame or olive oil. These are ‘spicy’ essential oils, and must be diluted for children and if applied to tender areas with thin skin.
Daub a minute amount on the little dent under the ear, where the hinge of the jaw joins the skull. You could also then gently stroke down, following the crease behind and under the jawbone.
Earaches are a pretty common call for help from parents I work with.
I bet we’ve all had a night like these parents:
"Our baby girl had a really hard night last night. She was up a lot, and couldn't be consoled. She would maybe fall asleep for an hour at most, and then start crying; it seemed like she was in pain but there was no temperature. She ate, but not like normal. She'd gnaw her fist while we walked her...but then she'd just cry again. She doesn't want to be put down, but then bucks me if I try to put her in the carrier.”
Only one hour after using these suggestions they reported: "We tried the Melrose behind her ears diluted with coconut oil, and it perked her right up. We're getting big smiles, and she's seeming more like herself."
24 hours after our phone consult: "She slept almost all yesterday and pretty well through the night. She was up just a few times to eat and change diapers. As soon as I put on the oil she wanted food and has been eating much better. Our older child used to get ear infections, but I forgot about them!"
These approaches will get you started in the right direction.
If you’d like to take your confidence up a notch, and be well-armed with extensive preventative perspectives AND techniques to naturally resolve earaches such at the famed onion cure, using herbs, detailed homeopathic approaches, Jin Shin hand holds for pain, and more, then you’ll love Get Well Soon!
My on-line course contains 7+ hours of video training, along with a 76-page reference manual covering natural approaches to everyday family illnesses such as colds, coughs, flu, diarrhea, puking, pink eye, UTI’s and more. Take a look here, for the cost of a single urgent care visit you will be empowered with the tools and confidence to immediately help your family at home!