Ear Infection/ Hoarse Throat

Hi T., I have a 22 month old son and he has had several ear infections. Everytime we have had one, the symptons never got worse. But the cold may be traveling down to his chest now. My doctor always gives us an antibiotic and also some kind of medicine for congestion and so on. Your son probably needs another med to help him with these other symptoms. But for us usually 2 or 3 days with the antibiotic, my son is as good as new. Hope this helps.

First of all, how old is your son? I am a nurse so I think I can help you. Everyone can get a cold and there is nothing you can do about it. In children however, they can get sicker because they are so little and their immune systems are not as strong as ours. I think most children can be treated with over the counter medications/herbs in most cases. But, if they ever develop a fever, take them to the doctor. There are times when the fever and symptoms may be caused by a viral infection which cannot be treated by antibiotics. Antibiotics only treat bacterial infections. They don't do any good to viruses. If, in that case, it is a virus, you just have to deal with it. They need lots of fluids most importantly (food is important but fluids are more). Viruses can last anywhere from 1-2 weeks. My advice for parents when they aren't sure of whether or not they need to take them to the doctor is: If they develop a fever, seem short of breath or just seem not like themselves (sleeping a lot, not drinking/eating). In fact, a lot of ear infections are overtreated. New research states that too many kids are being put on antibiotics when they have just slight redness to an ear that probably would have resolved by itself. But your pediatrician is the judge of that. I would guess that your child either has a virus or you haven't waited long enough for the antibiotics to kick in. It can take anywhere from 24-48 hours for antibiotics to start working (to see an improvement anyway). Usually with ear infections, pediatricians will treat with an antibiotic that covers strep throat and other organisms too. If your child is still getting worse or isn't getting better after the 24-48 hours of antibiotics then I would assume that he has a virus but definitely take him back because he could be developing a different type of bacterial infection that the antibiotics he's taking won't treat. Also, you're right, never, never lay a child down flat with a bottle. And, humidifiers are good for when they are congested but be sure to clean it at least once a week or you will be adding mold and other allergens to his humidified air. And, never, never use hot humidified air. Too much risk of your child getting burned and that's a whole different problem--much worse. It's just not worth the risk even if you think he won't ever get to it.

I hope this wasn't too confusing for you. If you have any questions, just let me know.

Good luck!!!

M.

the mucus from his nose may be traveling down to his chest, causing the nasty cough. smell his breath. with the sore throat, fever he may be getting strep. if he has bad breath, white puss pockets on his throat it's strep and he will need antibiotics for it.

Maybe try taking him to another pediatrician. it sounds like you are not too satisfied with this one.

i would say...have your son checked for allergies (thats what it turned out to be with my son) and if the doc don't do it or can't find a reason...find another doc.

I am not sure where you live but we use Clear Lake Pediatric Clinic (Dr. Abbott) he is very thorough and really takes the time he never dismisses my concerns.

My son has had several ear infection, Most of which were discoverd because I took him to the doctor for some other reason. He never complains or has the usual symptoms. He has one cold after another last year, but there is little you can do about that. This is what I did. He would get a runny nose and cough. I give him just a little bit of benadryl at night, like 2 ccs or less than 1/2 tsp. That way it wouldn't make him
hyper but dry is nose up enough he could sleep. Babies are what is called obligate nose breathers (they have to breath thru their noses, this is so they can suck and breath at the same time). So stuffiness makes sleeping hard. I remember watcing my son, he would fall asleep mouth breathing and right when he would drift off into deeper sleep, he'd close his mouth and try to nose breath and that would wake him up.
A humidify really helps, I have a small bath room and I close the door, turn the shower on hot and sit in there with him for a few minutes, It really makes his nose run and him cough but it gets secretions moving so he would be more comfortable afterwards. I would also give my son tylenol or motrin at that age because I know how my head hurts when I have congestion and he cant tell me. I would take my son to the doctor when he was in his 3rd week of symptoms. I felt like if he could get over it by then, he needed help. More often then not, he had an ear infection or something that needed treated. My doctor was good about antibiotics. If my son's ear didn't look really bad, I would just bring him back in 5-7 days, if it still looked bad we would do antibiotics. I would say 1/2 the time he healed with out them. But we always had to check. It is hard because he doesn't complain. So the dr's office knows my call for an ear check so well now, they don't every question me. I guess the short of what I am saying, is treat the symptoms, try to stay calm (it so hard because you have no idea how they are feeling and they cant tell you and you always feel bad), give him time to fight it off and build up his immune system. Then if he can't go to the doctor