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Last week I received one of the rare calls that disturbs my night
rest. A patient called me at 2 AM regarding his soon who had awaken
with severe ear pain.
It took a few minutes to rise to full consciousness I remembered
my favorite remedy for this. No, it is not some herbal magic concoction,
but an old time drug combination that seems to work quite well.
The secret? Tylenol (acetaminophen), Motrin (ibuprofen) and Benadryl
(diphenhyrdamine). The real magic is the Benadryl which has a sedating
effect and allows the child to go back to sleep.
This combination does not clear up the infection but it does do
several good things:
- Allows the parent, child and me to
go back to sleep
- Provides time for evaluation of the
problem in the morning when everyone is rested
I rarely like to prescribe any antibiotics for an infection without
a clinical examination. This is particularly true for the ears as
it may not be a middle ear infection. An outer ear (swimmer's ear)
and wax in the canal are other possibilities.
Usually antibiotics are prescribed but breast milk dropped into
the ear canal four or five times a day also works quite nicely.
It is also important to look at the cause. The reason why I hardly
treat any ear infections is that most of my patients are on the
diet program. In my experience food is a factor in well over 90%
of ear infections.
This case was no different; the child was drinking milk, despite
my many previous warnings not do to so. But everyone in life gets
a choice, but many of us will have to pay the price in pain for
some of our choices.
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