Ear Infections: A Homeopathic Remedy

You may think ear infections are a bit off topic from our usual allergy/eczema/asthma posts, but it isn’t so. Both excessive ear wax and ear infections, and related conditions, have often been linked to sensitivities to dairy most commonly, but other foods as well. Dairy is a common culprit because it is known to cause inflammation in the body. My friend Selena wrote a great post about how “Milk Did My Body Wrong,” which is definitely worth a read about how dairy and other foods can really damage our bodies if we’re sensitive to them. But wait, isn’t milk supposed to be good for us? There are diets like GAPS that encourage the consumption of certain types of dairy. And then there is the calcium debate. It’s enough to make your head spin. Milk is good for you. Milk is poison. Which is right? Only you know your child’s body and what is best for them.

Jumping down from my soapbox….

With my own kids and with myself, I do see the amount of ear wax increase when we eat certain foods that also cause us to react in other ways. Many children with chronic ear infections see their infections lessen or stop altogether when dairy (or another food trigger) is removed from the diet or at least greatly reduced.

But if removing dairy or other food sensitivities hasn’t helped your child, what are you to do? Antibiotics were prescribed more for ear infections in the past, but thankfully that’s changing. After all, the American Academy of Pediatrics has recently changed their guidelines for diagnosing and treating ear infections in hopes of reducing the amount of cases treated with antibiotics, which can wreak havoc on intestinal health and in turn lead to inflammation.

Tristan, my older son, gets eczema, allergies, asthma from his food sensitivities. It’s how his body reacts when he’s inflamed. For my daughter, it was ear infections. While we never did figure out why she had so many of them before she turned two, we did find a pretty amazing natural treatment. For a six month period she had so many frequent ear infections that the doctors prescribed antibiotics to see how she’d respond before they sent us to an ear, nose, throat specialist. However, the antibiotics (we tried a few different types) would help and then the infections would just come back.

At my wit’s end, dealing with my son’s severe eczema at the same time, I was distraught and knew antibiotics were not the answer. They weren’t helping my daughter just as the steroids were not helping Tristan’s eczema. (No, I didn’t start out as a natural advocate – that took time, but I wouldn’t change my journey for the world as I’ve learned so much along the way.) My daughter was already eating a really clean diet thanks to her brother, so it wasn’t easy to pinpoint a food that could be triggering the infections.

Enter homeopathy.

With nothing to lose, since homeopathy is harmless, we decided on a whim to pick up a homeopathic tincture for ear infections. I was skeptical, but I figured why not try it.

And it worked! It worked miracles. The pain went away within the hour and the infection was gone in a couple of days. After several rounds of antibiotics that didn’t work for her, homeopathy did! It was unbelievable. In fact, Tristan has experienced pain in his ears a couple of times and I immediately gave him the drops and it never developed into anything. Who knows if it would have become an ear infection or not, but I’m happy to say we’ll never know. My daughter did start having some ear pain at a later period, but again, we gave her this tincture and it never developed into an ear infection.

This is what we used, Homeodel 30.

Now, I would strongly suggest staying under a physician’s care and getting follow ups to monitor your child’s infection if you decide to try this tincture. As you know, infections can get worse very quickly, so it’s very important to keep an open dialog with the doctor.

Have you tried homeopathy for ear infections?

Did your child suffer from chronic ear infections? If so, what worked for you?