Allergies and Ear Infections

I suspected milk for my daughter. I never had it confirmed, but they ceased when I stopped giving it to her. Wheat can also create mucus. Another thing is mold, which can be hard to detect. I do know that up to age 5 or so, they are building immunities, so sickness can be a good thing. Antibiotics on the other hand can be a bad thing unless your child really needs them. Give her yogurt, since cultured dairy seems to do better sometimes and see how she reacts. Is there anything in the house such as new carpets?

Get the skin testing done and then do what the allergist tells you. It can be controlled if you do what the doctor tells you and then and only then you can cut down sometimes on the medications for the allergy. Sometimes you react to certain medications by being hyper or drowsy and after being on it a bit you adjust to it and it no longer bothers you so you have to stick with it. Allergies and ear issues are no fun and you don't want her living on antibiotics as they don't help allergy in the first place and if the ear issues are from allergy then she needs that treated first. I have all year allergies and so do some of my kids and now grandkids. It can be controlled.

My youngest son has seasonal allergies that turn into ear infections really really quickly because of the fluid build up in his inner ear. We start dosing him with benedryl whenever he starts showing symptoms: runny nose, scratchy throat, coughing. Claritin and Zyrtec don't help him, he needs the old fashioned benedryl.

Food allergies usually present themselves as skin conditions, digestive issues, or result in an anaphylactic attack. She is not too young for testing, and it's not traumatic. If you want to identify the culprit, get her tested, but you can still treat the symptoms without knowing exactly what she's allergic too. Benedryl typically does NOT make children drowsy, but everyone is different. I suggest seeing both an ENT and an allergist in the next few months to rule out anything more serious.

Go ahead and have the allergy testing done. No, it is not pleasant - but once you know if there are specific triggers for her allergies you can find ways to reduce to her exposure to them. Also, allergy shots, if recommended, could greatly help her. My son's allergist explained that they are a long term therapy that gradually reduces the bodies' reaction to the allergens, with the long term result of eliminating the allergy almost completely.

I found, for my son, that rotating allergy medications worked best - if he spent to much time on one medication, the effectiveness was reduced as his tolerance to it increased. The one faithful medication we have found for him is Benadryl...which he puts off taking until bed time - but at 15 I figure it his choice if he wants to sneeze all day. :) The one medication he has taken consistently - for like 14 years, is Singulair. He began on it as a asthma preventative, and now continues to take it for allergy maintenance.

I am in Mississippi and we are having the same crazy hot/cold/hot weather here. This week it was 38 one day and 70 the next. I am fighting off a head cold and my son is having intermittent allergy attacks because of the hot/cold/damp cycle breeding allergens. Ugh.

So sorry she is feeling bad.
:(

Get the testing done so you know what you're dealing with an can either mitigate the allergens (if they're environmental) or properly treat her during her allergy "seasons" if they're more typical outdoor allergies. A pediatric allergist should have a scratch kit that tests up to 32 allergens at once. At our allergist, they have 4 paddles with 8 point on each and each point has a different allergen. They then have two nurses come in and you hold your child in your lap facing you and pull her shirt up, they press the paddles gently into her back at the same time for a second and then you wait to see which spots react. It was really quite easy and fast and very informative when my oldest was tested 10 years ago. Knowing precisely what he is allergic to and when those allergens are in season turned months and months of illness into a predictable, manageable season that we can prepare for and treat effectively.

For the time being, try just benadryl and see if that reduces her irritation and dries her up. It may just be that she has a lingering cold or series of colds. Around where I live, there is a virus going around that lasts 4-6 weeks and it's hell on the sinuses.

Also, try to avoid using antibiotics on the ear infections if at all possible. If they're caused by a virus, many will clear on their own. I learned after my 2nd son (the king of rebound ear infections...8 infections in 6 months) to not even go to the pedi until day 4 or 5 and just try to treat the pain with ear drops and tylenol/advil. Obviously run this by your doc first but see if he or she will agree to a more conservative approach to treating the next one. It may be what you need to break the cycle and get her immune system fighting on its own.

Speaking of which...make sure you are giving her a probiotic to counter the antibiotics as well as extra vitaman C, echinachea, and zinc to boost her depleted immune system. My mom has recently been all the rage about grapefruit seed extract so you might want to google that and see if it looks like it would help.

I went through the same things last year with my then three year old got a sinus infection from November through most of April. Same thing, took him in, they gave him antibiotic, it mostly went away, finished medicine, two days later full on sinus infection once again. Incredibly frustrating. This last fall he got sick again. All I could think was "oh great here we go again". However at the same time, he started to go through a phase where he refused oral medication. We tried everything we could think of, everything his nurses and doctor told us to try and my sister the nurse, yep gave her a call too. If we got the medicine in he would make himself gag and throw it up. So I took him back to the doctors and they gave him an antibiotic shot instead. He was at 100% in less than 36 hours and he stayed well too. We figured out that his body requires that he get one big dose of antibiotics is what gets the sinus infection to go away. BTW it's only when he has a sinus infection. Ears and throats and everything else he still gets an oral antibiotic because that's what works. You might want to ask your doctor about it. Most are very, very hesitant to give a child an antibiotic via shot. With my doc, there was no denying that it's the only thing that works. Just a thought. Good luck! It's so hard watching our babies suffer, isn't it?

we shampoo'd the carpets today, & right now, my ears are popping & cracking. I take Zyrtec & Singulair daily....& it's not working with the allergen overload from today. Oh, the joys of allergies! Everytime I swallow, my ears pop. Aaargh.

When my son was in preschool, he had nonstop allergy symptoms. He went thru the battery of allergy meds....trying to find the right combo. None worked. He ended up with surgery for both adenoids & tonsillectomy. This also did not end his symptoms.

After another round of strep, I had reached the end of my patience. I agreed to testing. In the end, his only allergen was mold. With his preschool in a basement facility, we decided to move him. Within two weeks, all symptoms were gone & he was off all meds. Two years of battling this....& it was all due to environmental issues at the preschool. :(

Soooo, my recommendation: go for the testing. Yes, my son cried...but it solved our mystery & we found a way for him to heal.