sewmuchmore

Sweet oil is wonderfull. Will take the pain away. :P My mom used it when we where young. I keep a bottle of it in the cabnet. Just take a teaspoon and put a match under warm it up a bit. Make sure the spoon is not hot and pour in to ear put a cotton in the ear to keep air out. It works :thumbup:

Maride

Not every ear ache is an ear infection. I would try the peroxide or any other remedy listed here, but remember that if it is indeed an ear infection, most likely is a middle ear infection and none of these solutions will solve it. I ignored once an ear ache and ended up having a huge one that turned into a 2 moths agony. The pain was incredible and I could here my own voice inside my head. It was one of the most strange feelings. I know you may feel guilty for doing it, but a trip to the ER may prevent it from getting worse. Most ERs have a smaller section called Fast Track or Urgent care that are created exactly for cases when is not severe enough to be at the ER but when postponing treatment will make it worse. A middle ear infection can turn into inner infection, which means months of treatment, Dr visits, lost work days $$ in copays at the Dr and pharmacy and lost sewing time. And if it turns up not to be an infection, you get piece of mind. Good luck and feel better.

Lindsey

Its your ear.. I wouldn't play around with it , I would probaly go to the drs. when i was little my mother would blow cigarette smoke into it and put a piece of cotton in it. However its probably just the warmth that made it ffeel better.

leatheflea

Grate an onion, not a hot onion it will burn the ear. Place grated onion in cheese cloth to squeeze out the juice. One drop of juice in ear stops the pain. My kids swear by this. They are now adults. I used it on them all the time when little.

Bueniebabe

I use a blow dryer; not real hot

OHSue

OK, will take the unpopular stance here. I am a nurse with almost 10 years pediatrics as well as over 25 years adult medicine. I also have a son who has had over 50 ear infections, even after tubes.
Putting sweet oil and onion juice only relieve the pain, and I would never put a food product, especially one as dirty as an onion in my ear unless I was looking to get an infection. Applying heat to the surrounding area can offer some comfort, but remember heat is going to increase the blood flow, so if an area is already inflamed it already has increased blood flow. The whole middle ear is a system of fluids and bones in a tube(OK that is pretty simplified). The system works to help balance by a delicate fluid balance. Increasing the blood flow will increase the size of the surrounding tissue and possibly create more pressure possibly leading to a burst tympanic membrane and/or increase in pain.
Hydrogen Peroxide can lead to drying out the tissues, that is why it is rarely used in hospitals much anymore for cleaning wounds and such. So I would use it judiciously, but that said, my mother used to do it to all of us kids at least every month 'to clean out our ears'. I have scarring and hearing loss from home treatments by mom, but that is most likely from that bobby pin she used after the peroxide.
As for ear candling, here is an article from WebMD on it
http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/f...n-ear-candling
So my advice to you is to try some antihistamines (be careful if you have high blood pressure with which ones you choose), drink lots of fluids because the antihistamines will dry you out. Avoid using a straw, drinking straight from a bottle or blowing your nose if you can, this can creat back pressure and force stuff further into the eustachian tubes which connect the throat to the ear. For pain I suggest acetaminophen or if you can tolerate it, ibuprofin because it has an anti-inflamatory effect you won't get from the tylenol substitute. Be careful with the use of ibuprofin (Advil) if you have kidney problems or stomach problems.
If your pain continues to increase, you develop a persistant temperature I would probably seek out an urgent care before Weds. Make sure and call the doctor every day to see if they have had any cancellations. I work in a doctors office now, and I hate to admit it, but with our front desk staff, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
I know this is really long winded, but your hearing is very important, lots of folks have hearing loss because of ear infections and a lot of this could have been avoided.
Don't worry, there won't be a written exam on this. ;)

Barbshobbies

A lot of things work, but if you read these cures they mostly have heat involved in it. I think that is the main ingredient. I know this works, when DD had an ear ache, in the middle of the night, my MIL had told me to hold a pure wool cloth over the ear and rock her back to sleep. After an hour or so she sat up on my lap and said "Can I go back to bed now?"

flowerjoy

A good article... nothing to fool around with... thanks for the info.

donnajean

Ditto! Aleve Sinus saved me from dr. appt. this spring. Avoiding the sinus infections also avoids the ear problems for me. I also had the sinus surgery about 15 yrs. ago. Even standing in hot shower & blowing nose helps to keep sinus clear.

arimuse

http://www.earthclinic.com/ has tried "folk" home type info. Some of it I've used. sharet