Top 5 Ear Infection Symptoms
If you’ve never experienced an ear infection, consider yourself lucky. Parents of children who suffer from regular ear infection episodes know first hand how hard it is to watch their loved one suffer with little they can do to console them.
Fortunately, modern medicine has allowed for quick and easy remedies that cure ear infections and have people feeling better within just a few days. The following are the Top 5 Ear Infection Symptoms to help you determine if you, or your child, is coming down with an ear infection.
1. Pain
The number one indicator of an impending ear infection is moderate to severe pain in one or both ears. Adults and older children are able to vocalize their distress, making it easier to asses ear infection symptoms. However, if your child is an infant or under 2 years of age, they can’t tell you what they are feeling. Children in this age group will often cry and tug, or poke at, their ear(s) to indicate pain.
2. Fever
Any time there is an infection in our body, our system responds automatically by raising our body temperature. By raising our body temperature, it allows our immune system to fight off the infection. If you or your child is experiencing pain that is accompanied by a fever of 101 degrees or higher, the likelihood of it being an ear infection is high.
3. Loss of Appetite / Crabbiness / Vomiting
As adults, we can often attribute loss of appetite and crabbiness to many things in our daily life, making it easy to pass them off or ignore them. These symptoms are more profound in children, especially if they are generally healthy eaters with happy personalities.
Vomiting often occurs due to the infection affecting the middle ear.
4. Drainage
Ear wax is our ear’s way of staying clean.
However, a build-up of wax, or drainage coming from the ear is a clear ear infection symptom of something more serious. Any drainage coming from the ear needs to be attended to immediately, as it could indicate a rupture of the ear drum.
5. Trouble Hearing
With some infections, people will often experience a hard time hearing in one or both ears. Sounds may come across as muffled, or distance. Some may also experience buzzing or ringing in the ears.
Parents will often notice their previously attentive children suddenly “ignoring” them, or appearing “dazed and confused.” If your child is old enough, you can ask leading questions to find out if they are experiencing any buzzing or ringing.
A Little About Antibiotics
The invention of antibiotics revolutionized the medical world over 50 years ago. Effective in killing bacteria that cause all types of infections, the first, safe antibiotics were brought about in 1945.
Antibiotics have been life savers in many common infections that at one time, would claim a person’s life. The problem with antibiotics comes in when they are over prescribed. Often, people will run to their doctor at the onset of common cold or flu symptoms, and request antibiotics to cure the ailment.
What most people still do not understand is that antibiotics do not kill or cure viruses – which include colds and flu. Antibiotics kill infections caused by bacteria. If there are no bacteria, antibiotics are essentially worthless. Over-use of antibiotics is also known to build resistance. This can lead to our bodies no longer responding to antibiotics when they are really needed.
Careful use of antibiotics is necessary to ensure they do what they are supposed to do when they are truly needed.
If you or your child is experiencing any of the above ear infection symptoms, see your doctor immediately.
