ear infections??

ds has been diagnosed with an ear infection.

We are now on day 4 of this, how long does it last, is he in pain all the time? I have heard that ear infections are very painful.

He has been in our bed for the last 2 weeks because he had a virus first and now this, which makes him cry and whimper all night and constantly moving cause he is uncomfortable :wall: I feel sooooo drained and am hoping that he will sleep well tonight, he no longer has a temp so i'm guessing the infection is starting to clear, but he is not eating and constantly wants mummy ALL THE TIME, won't go to daddy or anyone but me, which tells me he is still not feeling well.

should i get a second opinion or wait and see?? the dr put him on antibiotics, could this make it worse for next time??

poor poppet :(
so he's been on ab's now for 4 days?
usually ab's start to work within 24-36 hours so you'd expect to see some sort of improvment pain wise, id see how he is tomorrow then maybe go back.
he may have a lot of fluid behind the ear drum creating pressure = pain :dunno:

thanks AJP, he seems alot better today, still not himself though, didn't want much for brekkie, just some strawberries and his milk then back to bed about 3 hours after getting up. Usually he will have a sleep after lunch not in the morning. I really hope he isn't in too much pain :(

We've just come out of an ear infection. DD2 had it on the friday and I went to Doc's on the sat. We were given amoxil. By tues she still had a temp so I went back and the ears were much worse, the medicine hadn't worked. So we were put on new ab's. That cleared it up. Sometimes ears dont need ab's, but in our case there was a temp that was not clearing so I feel it was important. Maybe go back and check as it could be the ab's arent working. xo

thanks everyone.

It seems as though he is ok thru the day (although still not really himself) and then at night time he goes down hill again. Today we took him to the local park and breakwall for a walk and play and he was having a great time, seemed ok, but tonight he developed a temp again and didn't eat his dinner and didn't want his milk either.

I am definately taking him back to the dr tomorrow to make sure his ear is clearing, but how long can we expect him to feel miserable?? I hate seeing him like this, I want my happy little boy back, its just awful and I feel terrible because we have to give him panadol, but he HATES it and is sick of it!

what else can I do??

is it normal for him to be ok one minute and then back to being really whingy, crying like he is in pain, temp and not eating the next??

Just wanted to mention that antibiotics can make kids sleepy. My son is on them at the moment for something else & he sleeps a lot during the day but seems very uncomfortable at night. He's teething right now & has had fluid in his ears since birth which puts extra pressure on the ears when teething. He's been off solid food for 3 weeks now, just wants mush & bottles. He's usually OK during the day but at night he plays up I'm presuming from pain. Perhaps lying down in the cot or bed might put extra pressure on the eardrums.... I'm not really sure but I do wonder about it.

I hope your son improves soon. It's so hard watching them in pain & being able to do very little about it.

Aw, poor little guy :(
It really depends on the infection as to how long it takes to clear up, mate. Sorry can't be more helpful. Natty's ears were badly infected last year and it took a week and a half for them to start to clear, two courses of ABs. She was miserable for the first 3-4 days, then started to get better. She wasn't totally herself until the infection started to clear. The Dr told me to keep up the pain relief because ear infections do hurt. Natty hated having the meds too, and the Dr suggested neurofen because you don't have to give it as often.
Yeah, I would say it is totally normal for him to be ok one minute and whingey the next - he can't communicate his discomfort in any other way. And once the panadol starts wearing off he'd get sore again. IRT the night time restlessness, I've heard that lying down can make it worse for some kids (though Natty didn't have that problem fortunately for us. She was only miserable during the day) so that might be why he's fussy during the night.
I really hope he is better and that you all get some rest very soon.

Neurofen worked much better for us than panadol. And like I said before, you might find you need to change ab's. Literally once we changed, she was ok after the first night on them. I have found in 11 years, it never takes longer than 12 hours on ab's to start to see improvement. Even though the Doc tells me it can take longer, I know something is not right if it does take longer. Im sure it will be sorted out today xo

We are going through this too. DS's ear infections are so bad he has had 2 perforated ear drums in the last 7 weeks because of it. It's so hard to watch them in pain isn't it?

Thanks everyone, DS is much better now, we didn't change ab (i don't want him having penicilian due to family history of allergy) but we got some antibiotic ear drops and they seem to be working.. taking him back to the dr today just to make sure he is all good.