How To Treat Your Child’s Earache

Earaches are one of the most common ailments of children, especially younger school aged children.  Sometimes they are caused by an ear infection, which is traditionally treated with a prescription of antibiotics. However, recent test studies have shown that antibiotics may not only be ineffective for ear infections, but may even encourage the infection to return. These studies advise that waiting out the infection may be the best course.

Whether you’ve taken your child to a doctor for the earache or not, there are some things that you can do at home to help ease your child’s earache pain.

Give Pain Reliever

It is recommended that children be given ibuprofen to lessen the swelling that causes most earache pain. Use the dosage recommended on the bottle for your child’s age and weight.

Apply Heat

Heat will go a long way toward easing your child’s ear pain. There are a couple of good ways to use heat when easing ear pain, including using a hot cloth or a heating pad.

The moist heat of a hot cloth is often most comforting to a child. To prepare a hot cloth to use as a compress, you can either hold a folded cloth under hot running water or heat a wet cloth in the microwave for approximately one minute. (Please adjust time according to your microwave’s wattage.)

Be sure to wring the cloth out well, as you don’t want to introduce water into your child’s ear. Then have your child lie on the hot cloth, with a towel or other protection below the compress, if desired. Be sure to check the cloth often to see if it needs reheating. It’s not necessary to keep the hot compress on the ear constantly, just several times a day for 10-20 minutes at a time.

If you prefer to use a heating pad as a heat source, it’s recommended that you cover it with a towel or other cloth before having your child lie on it, to prevent it being too hot for comfort.

For a child, having an earache is certainly no fun. But, these steps will go a long way toward making your child much more comfortable.