Wow! I knew about using saline when baby had a cold but I never thought about it as a preventative thing. I will definitely start this up TODAY with Anika since she 1- seems to constantly be fighting (and fighting quite well) the germs her brother brings her and 2- she never seems to mind the saline.
Well, for those of you who are interested in something a little more holistic with the ear infections you could try seeing a chiropractor. We did this for my ds and it worked wonders! My dh was skeptical and worried about the chiropractor “setting up the revenue stream” (you do have to watch them on that) but in the end he was convinced that it worked for us. I’ll post links to a few articles but the theory is that the eustacian tube is parallel to the ground in babies so it is already difficult enough for them to drain. If there is any sort of misalignment of the spine then it is even more difficult for the tube to drain. The antibiotics only clear the infection but do not drain the ears. For us, once we were able to drain Maxon’s ears and keep them drained he had no more problems.
http://www.chiroweb.com/archives/11/12/23.html
http://www.healthychild.com/database/chiropractic_for_chroni c_ear_infections.htm
I know for many kids/ families tubes are absolutely the way to go but we thought there was no harm in giving this a try. Plus, the doctors really didn’t feel that Maxon had a problem but I did. I saw the writing on the wall (double infection that took 4 weeks and 2 rounds of antibiotics to clear up, 1- 2 healthy weeks, double infection that took 4 weeks and 2 rounds of antibiotics to clear up, 1- 2 weeks healthy, double infection that took 4 weeks and 2 rounds of antibiotics to clear up….) and did not want to wait until after 8 – 10 infections to do something. Nor did I want all those antibiotics if I could avoid them.
Going to a chiropractor is already considered controversial so taking your baby is even more controversial. I would highly recommend only seeing one that has been personally referred to you.
.
