Ear Infections

[S U]

My 17 month old daughters are both sick.
One has ear infections in both ears. This is her first ear infection and I'm very curious about how she 'caught' it.
I can recall when I was young, my mom would tell me to always cover my ears when it was windy or cold or else I would get an ear infection.....is this an old wives tale?
Do you 'catch' ear infections, or is it a result of a cold that has further developed?
Any insight would be great;)

[D-Roc]

You can not get an era infection from the wind.

Typically an era infection is casued by a build up of fluids in the ear that has not or can not drain out. That is why some kids get tubes in their ears. To drain the fluid.

Our daughter use to get ear infections due to the fact when she was on the bottle we would let her lay down while drinking. This caused some fluids to collect in her ears and it would not drain. After we changed that habit, no more ear infections

[usedtobebarbie]

Ear infections happen when fluid gets trapped in the ear and can't get out. After a while of being trapped bacteria starts to grow. They're more common in children because their ears aren't fully developed and fluid is more likely to get trapped in such little ear canals. The fluid can come from drinking laying down but most often comes from a head cold where fluid builds up. Making to 17 months without having one is quite an accomplishment.

Some kids are able to get over them on their own, but often times if it's gotten bad enough to cause pain antibiotics are required to cure it.

[susan123]

+1 to the above responses.

You can't catch an ear infection - you just catch a common cold that produces fluid/mucus which can lead to an ear infection. Just like our head colds, the fluid builds up and travels to the ears. If it doesn't drain well, it develops an infection. Little ones usually have short eustachian tubes which don't drain well which is why they are more prone to this type of infection.

To get to 17 months, is terrific news - it likely means this will only be a once and a while problem instead of a chronic one. My daughter had just a couple but every runny nose eventually led to an ear infection for my son. It was every other month we were off to the dr. for antibiotics. Finally at 3.5 we use an RX nose spray at each runny nose and have been able to ward off the infections for the most part.

[CSK'sMom]

+1 to the above responses.

You can't catch an ear infection - you just catch a common cold that produces fluid/mucus which can lead to an ear infection. Just like our head colds, the fluid builds up and travels to the ears. If it doesn't drain well, it develops an infection. Little ones usually have short eustachian tubes which don't drain well which is why they are more prone to this type of infection.

To get to 17 months, is terrific news - it likely means this will only be a once and a while problem instead of a chronic one. My daughter had just a couple but every runny nose eventually led to an ear infection for my son. It was every other month we were off to the dr. for antibiotics. Finally at 3.5 we use an RX nose spray at each runny nose and have been able to ward off the infections for the most part.

While hopefully that is the case for the OP's daughters I wouldn't bet on it. My oldest had his first ear infection at over 2 years of age. From that point till he was 12/14 he got them almost non-stop. We went through low dose long term antibiotics, 4 sets of tubes in his ears, adnoids removed, then tonsils removed and adnoids re-scraped. Burst ear drum on several occaisions as well. He had tubes so often for so long we even had custom ear plugs made for him (essentially the same as hearing aid moulds). He now has low frequency, permanent hearing loss in one ear.:(