Is your baby showing signs like decreased appetite and increased crankiness? These might be some of the baby earache symptoms.
A earache is a common problem that troubles children and adults alike. While adults can guess the signs and symptoms of a earache and visit the doctor, babies and infants can’t do much of it, since they can’t talk or express their pain verbally. Hence, parents find it really hard to guess whether their baby is suffering from a earache or any other health problem for that matter.
In such scenarios, closely observing minute behavioral and physiological changes in the baby is the best way to find out about the things that are disturbing it. In case of a earache, babies show certain common signs like bad temper, crankiness and increased irritability. These can also be symptoms of a earache. If such signs are accompanied with other problems like a cold or fever, then it is important for the parents to consult a professional pediatrician and find appropriate treatment for the respective problem.
Common Symptoms
Earache or pain inside one or both the ears is caused due to a number of reasons. Babies mostly experience earaches in case of swelling or inflammation of the inner ear, middle ear, as well as external ear structures, accumulation of fluid during cold of respiratory infection, which causes pain in one or both the ears, and other types of ear infections. Take a look at the following possible symptoms of a earache in a baby.
Crying: Continuous crying for no apparent reason is considered as an indication of pain in all the babies. When babies feel ear pain, they cry for more than half an hour, continuously. This crying increases when they are being put to sleep or are lying down. This happens because of ear fluid builds up pressure in the ears when the body is in vertical position. If your baby is suffering with a cold and is irritable when put down, she is probably suffering from earache. This pain might go away with the time, but one should treat the color with prescribed medication or several home remedies.
Irritability: With added ear pressure and increased pain in the ears, babies are most likely to show various behavioral changes like anger, irritability, crankiness, lack of sleep, waking up with loud cries, getting inconsolable, etc. When babies refuse to go to sleep or stop crying, it could be a sign that they are suffering from earache. These signs are also evident when babies are teething, which is the most likely cause of ear pain in babies.
Ear Tugging: When babies tug and swat on either or both their ears, it’s always been considered as a sigh of earache. Since babies can’t express their pain verbally, they swat and pull their own ears in the course of unbearable pain. However, it is also important to understand that ear tugging is not a definite symptom of earache. Many infants have a habit of tugging their own ears. Hence, before providing any kind of medication for a earache when babies start to do that, get a checkup done.
Head Shaking: Another common symptom is shaking of the head. When babies suffer with a ear infection and start feeling pain in one or both the ears, they start hearing muffled sounds in the middle ear region, which makes them confused. In order to get away from that feeling, babies shake their heads from side to side. Again, if the baby is shaking her head and is already suffering with any health condition that might have evoked ear infection, then you need to consult a good pediatrician, who is the best person to prescribe appropriate medication.
Mild Fever: Fever is one of the most common symptoms of earache amongst babies. When a baby is suffering with fever and no other signs like cold or cough, and is still getting fussy, it is most likely a sign of earache. Such type of fever is caused due to ear infections of one kind or the other. In fact, experts claim that more than 5% of babies suffering with earache, suffer from fever. So, if the baby is suffering with mild fever (less than 104ºF), she is likely to have a earache.
Other Symptoms: Apart from the aforementioned earache symptoms, loss of appetite, refusal to eat chewable food items, demanding dummies or breastfeeding, and redness of the external ear portion, are also a few signs that she is suffering from a earache. Ear infections are sometimes accompanied with fluid discharge, which needs immediate medical intervention.
Treatment
Crying and irritability evident in case of a earache which is caused due to cold, goes away with the medications that are prescribed for cold. However, other symptoms like fever and discharge do need medical intervention. As I have repeatedly mentioned, before trying any sort of baby earache home remedy or other medication, it is always important to consult with the doctor who will evaluate the exact reason for the earache. He will also prescribe appropriate medication for the same. If you want to try a few home remedies, then you can use castor oil, sesame oil, olive oil, garlic juice, external application of warm mixture of licorice in ghee, etc., can be used.
When either one or a set of the aforementioned baby earache symptoms is observed, you will guess that the baby is suffering from earache, and that it is necessary that you should take her to a pediatrician, as soon as possible. Take care.
