Alternative and Herbal Remedies for Ear Infections
Ear infections affect millions of babies, toddlers, and young children every year. And there's a growing trend of small children having chronic problems with ear infections. Chronic means the problem never or rarely goes away, or it keeps coming back frequently.
Many kids with chronic ear infections stay on prescription antibiotics for several months at a time, only to return to them again after they've stopped for just a month or two.
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Middle and inner ear infections are quite common with small children because the eustachian tubes are not fully developed. The eustachian tubes connect the ear and throat areas in your body, and these allow bacteria to enter the ear easily if the tube is too straight or small. Since children aren't fully developed when they're born, thier eustachian tubes are on the small side, and they tend to be straighter as well - both of which can allow germs to pass into the ear easier than with older children and adults.
Now part of the reason ear infections have become such a chronic issue in children in the past twenty years, is due to the over use of prescription antibiotics. Antibiotics are used for anything and everything these days - and they have been for far too long - so germs and bacteria have become resistent to them. Thus they infection may recede while using antibiotics, but the bacteria aren't actually killed off by these medications, so the ear infections return quite quickly once antibiotics are stopped.
When kids have too many problems with ear infections, a common next step is to have surgery performed to insert small drainage tubes into the ear drum. This works well while the tubes are in place, because it allows the fluid behind the ear to drain another way, if it's unable to drain properly through the eustachian tubes.
There are however, many alternative and herbal remedies which work quite well in resolving ear infection issues. And they're much more gentle an option than using antibiotics or getting surgery.
The best herbal ear infection remedy I've ever found is garlic. This not only clears up the infection within just a day or two, but it also relieves the pain quickly. This is something of a life saver for any parents walking the floor at 2am with a child in pain from an ear infection.
I simply slice a small piece of raw, fresh garlic, wrap it in tissue, then insert it partially into the ear canal. Within about 15 minutes the pain is usually gone and the child can sleep, and within a day or two the infection is often gone too.
Garlic oil can be used instead of fresh garlic, but be sure you're using true garlic oil. If it says "odor free", it will not work. Because the key healing ingredient is allicin, and that is also the primary source of garlic's smell.
If you don't have garlic on hand, plain old onion will work as well. Just follow the same procedure noted with garlic above. Cutting a small piece of garlic or onion is important, because it releases the juices and odor - both of which travel into the ear canal and begin quickly killing the bacteria.
Wrapping the onion or garlic in tissue is important too, because the juices can irritate the sensitive skin inside the ear.
Statements in this article may not be approved by the FDA, and nothing here should be considered as professional medical advice.
