Most babies experience ear infection symptoms two or three times a year before the age of two making ear infections one of the most common infant illnesses. As with all infant sicknesses, it can be difficult to tell what is bothering a child too young to talk. Luckily there are a few ear infection symptoms that directly point towards the ailment at hand. If your baby is displaying any of the following symptoms, it is likely that an ear infection is the reason and you should give a call into your pediatrician’s office right away.
Crankiness/Crying More Than Usual
The first sign that something is wrong with your child will probably be increased crankiness or crying. Parents often have a feeling that there’s just something wrong before any other symptoms of illness are evident. Of course, crankiness or crying alone doesn’t signify an ear infection but it may be the first clue that your baby is becoming sick. If it is an ear infection that is making your child cranky, usually one or more additional ear infection symptoms will also be present. When your baby starts acting more cranky than normal, the best thing to do is keep an eye out for other symptoms of illness.
Fever – Usually Higher Than 101 Degrees
On those days when your infant seems out of sorts it is a good idea to take the child’s temperature, just in case. If the fever is higher than 100.5 in an infant younger than 6 months or 102 degrees with a child over 6 months of age, you should call your pediatrician for advice. Fever is the body’s way of trying to fight an infection or virus so a high fever is a definite symptom that an illness is present. There are many ways to treat fever in infants and small children including over the counter fever reducers like Motrin and Tylenol. My pediatrician would often recommend a lukewarm bath if medications didn’t seem to be working. Beware though, that although you treat the fever, you are not treating the illness. You want to be careful about suppressing the fever so much that it can’t do it’s job – fighting the infection or virus.
Tugging At Ears Or Draining Liquid From Ears
Probably the best indicator that your baby can give you that the illness is an ear infection is to tug on the ear. Infants pull on the ear to try and stop the pain from hurting. Sometimes an ear infection will also cause a thick yellowy substance to drain from the ears. If your baby has either of these symptoms, it is very possible that an ear infection is the culprit. Still, it is best to call your baby’s pediatrician and discuss all of the visible symptoms that your baby is experiencing before making any diagnoses on your own.
Difficulty With Balance Or Hearing
Occasionally an ear infection will cause a problem with the infant’s balance or hearing. Therefore if you notice your infant seems to be falling over during sitting up or crawling more than normal, even if no other symptoms are present, you want to keep an eye out for other ear infection symptoms. The same goes for noticing that your baby doesn’t seem to be hearing you as well as usual. If you are at all worried about an ear infection, you should call your doctor’s office and discuss your concerns with your pediatrician or nurse in the office.
Do Ear Infections Require Antibiotics?
No one symptom alone can determine whether your infant has an ear infection or not. However, a combination of symptoms can give you a better idea of what is bothering your baby. Fortunately, ear infections are not considered the serious illness they once were. It used to be thought that all ear infections had to be treated with antibiotics or they would never get better. Now studies have proven that infections, including ear infections, CAN go away without any medical treatment at all. Furthermore, more and more doctors are “waiting and watching” rather than over prescribing antibiotics which can lead to resistant strains of bacteria. In any case, ear infections usually do not cause any lasting harmful effects and generally just result in a few days of crankiness and sleeping more than usual.
