The Alternative Health Gazette

Alternative and Herbal Remedies for Ear Infections (2)

Regardless of how young or old a person is, ear infections are painful. They’re especially hard on parents who have young children, because the ear infection pain is at its worst late at night. Children are also more prone to getting chronic, recurring ear infections - sometimes starting as young as just a few months old, and sometimes continuing well into kidergarten ages and beyond.

In most cases, ear infections will happen less often once a child reaches the age of about three. Unfortunately it has become all too common however, to find children at the age of 5, 6, or even 10 who are still suffering from constant ear infections.

One of the biggest reasons children have such a problem with multiple, recurring ear infections is because antibiotics have been used too much in the past twenty years. Bacteria and germs have become resistent to even the most powerful antibiotics in use today. Antibiotics also tend to kill all bacteria in the body, and this can be a problem in and of itself. By killing all bacteria, the child’s body is left with no defensive, a.k.a. “good” bacteria, that’s naturally produced by their own immune system. So the body is left even more defenseless to bad bacteria after a round or two with antibiotics.

There are many natural alternatives to helping heal an ear infection though. Which one you’ll use will depend on the age of your child, and some remedies will work quite well for one person while not working as well for another.

First however, if your child must take antibiotics for an ear infection - and they’re not allergic to milk products - be sure they’re getting natural yogurt as well. Kids love frozen yogurt bars and snack packs, and it’s extremely beneficial to them as well. Natural yogurt helps restore the “good” bacteria in the body, which gives a natural boost to the immune system and this helps the body and antibiotic medications to work together and actually solve the ear infection problem instead of putting it off for a short while.

At the same time, you want to avoid giving your child standard milk when they have an ear infection. It creates more mucus in the body, which makes drainage of the inner ear fluid much more difficult.

Now if your child is small, one of the best herbal remedies to use for both relieving ear infection pain and clearing up the infection, is garlic. Garlic oil can be purchased in many health food stores these days. Simply put a drop or two into the ear and the pain should start going away within 15 minutes or so. Continue putting drops in at least once a day for three to five days, and the ear infection is usually gone completely within that time frame. Be sure you’re using true garlic oil though, if it says “odor free” it will not work, because extracting the odor from garlic also extracts the primary infection fighting ingredient known as Allicin.

If your child is old enough to swallow pills safely, you can give them garlic or golden seal pills to help clear up the infection also. Taking garlic or golden seal in pill form will not ease the pain quickly, but these are both powerful natural antibiotics which will start killing the infection causing bacteria within days.

Statements in this article may not be approved by the FDA, and nothing here should be considered as professional medical advice.

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