Ear Infection ~ Contagious?

Ear infections are not contagious....however, if he had a cold/virus that could be contaigious. Or the ear infection could have been from allergies too.

I would say no, your child is not contaigious at this time since the reason his ear became infected is probably gone.

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ear infections are NOT contagious. you are fine to send him back as long as he has been fever free for 24 hours...shoot we found out our daughter had another (I think this is her 17th one now) ear infection, we filled the script and sent her to daycare....afterall she GOT the bug there and she wasnt running a fever...we know her infections because she gets bronculolits and cant breath...(no fevers)

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I don't think he's contagious. If he needs ear drops or cotton balls in his ears for the drainage, I'd probably call the daycare to make sure they are able to accomedate that.

M.

I would make sure your daycare can or will accomodate the drainage. Some homes (who can have the luxury of deciding for themselves...one of the perks of self ownership...we get to make the rules), may not..others, no problem.

Centers are likely to have a more "written in stone" ruling or policy.

For my own home childcare, I still reserve the right to require a child to be out of childcare if they can not function within the group with their illness, regarless of fever, meds, etc. If the drainage was excessive and requiring and over-much amount of my attention to keep it off of things and others, etc..or if the child was really uncomfortable, whiny and just...well, not wanting to function in a group setting, they may need to be out of childcare another day or 2.

All depends around here!

Good luck and I hope you young one feels better soon!

He can go to daycare. My son has had a few ear infections since getting his tubes and always has lots of drainage which is pretty gross but his daycare has never complained and they are pretty picky about sick kids.

Ear infections are not contagious even if there is fever (barring other symptoms that could be). As for tomorrow, as long as he is acting fine then there is no reason he has to stay home from daycare.

My guess is still that he is not contagious but since it contains blood, the daycare may have an issue. Call them to be sure.

My understanding is that the infection itself can't be passed around. But the virus that lead to the infection can be and already has been. I do believe that most of the time illnesses have run through the daycare by the time 1/3rd of the kids have come down with symptoms. At that point the others will either get sick or not. That's why I take every situation as it comes and decide based on each case if they need to go home or stay home.

This happened with my son after he had tubes put in and got an infection. It kind of freaked me out to see this draining from his ear. . . . It isn't mucus like from your nose it is the waste product from an infection (like puss) No not contagious nor would most child care facitlities keep him out of classroom for this.
I would let the teacher know (just like with a runny nose) that you'd like the area to stay wiped as clean as possible.
He's good to go!

If he's got bloody drainage out of his ears, he needs to stay home until the drainage has stopped. It's not contagion from the infection that becomes the problem, but the blood that is the issue. I would look at it as an uncoverable sore and he would have to stay home until the drainage stopped. Good luck!