Hee haw! When your child has an earache, he often brays about it. An adult may moan instead. What remedy can you give?
Most common ear problems:
When pain is more in the right ear, Belladonna comes to mind. It often starts with a high fever and includes a sore, bright red throat, a headache and sometimes, trouble hearing. The patient isn’t too keen on food or drink and, although his face is red, he doesn’t sweat, nor is he chilly.
An irritable child, pleased with nothing, demanding to be held yet still unhappy may need Chamomilla. He may be teething too. He is restless and screaming, then quiet. Cheeks are red and right ear is more inflamed.
When the patient is chilly yet much prefers the open air to a stuffy room, she is thirstless and weepy, worse in the evening, worse for rest (yes, strange) she may well need Pulsatilla. There may be a bursting sensation, a pulsing or a pressure. Mucous is yellow-green.
Chamomilla, Pulsatilla and Belladonna are the top three remedies for the common Otitis Media (middle ear) infection that prompts myriad doctor’s visits. Symptoms are usually dull and throbbing or sharp and tearing. Sometimes the ear reflects a pain elsewhere in the body (tonsillitis, sinusitis, jaw trouble, adenoids)
Other ear problems:
For hearing difficulty or loss (wax in the ear?) often with a feeling that the ear is blocked or for nerve pain that affects especially the LEFT SIDE of the face or chewing (electric shock pain) worse for movement, look at Verbascum Thapsus. Try mullein oil drops in the ear first if you think wax is the culprit.
Earache with sore throat. Here, the throat pain extends to the ears. Usually it shoots or tears, is worse at night. There may be thick, yellow effluvia from the ears; it may smell. Merc sol is where to look for relief.
Earache on the right side which moves to the left is a signal to consider Lycopodium. Pains are pressing and bursting. There is usually some deafness and an offensive, thick yellow discharge may be present. The child is chilly and worse between 4 and 8pm. Earache is usually with a cold or after scarlet fever.
If you’re not certain which remedy is best, get in touch.