Milkbank Blog
You Can’t Live With Them, You Can’t (Seem To Ever) Live Without Them.
The culprit? Ear infections.
This week after a restless night with little sleep and a screaming baby, my husband and I found ourselves shrugging our shoulders and wondering once again if we should take him in to the doctor’s office for a (what seems like the thirty-seventh) peek at his ears?
Him: He doesn’t have a fever
Me: No, but remember that one time when I went in for a well baby and it turned out he had a double-ear infection and I didn’t even know it? That was great.
Him: Yes, but he’s eating fine, he seems happy.
Me: He won’t sleep.
Him: Could be his teeth?
Me: Or another ear infection.
Him: Or not.
Me: Or not.
Here’s the thing, in the absence of a fever it’s almost impossible to tell if my babies have had an ear infection. I’ve heard some children tug at their ears but neither of my kids ever did that. My only clue has usually been an abnormally bad night of sleeping. Even at that, it’s only a clue. A bad night of sleep could be attributed to so many things, teeth, gas, the moon, who knows what else?
According to pediatrician Alan Greene, small children get more ear infections than older children or adults for several reasons: The tube is shorter, more horizontal, and straighter, (quick and easy trip for bacteria). The tube is floppier, with a tinier opening (easier to block) and young children get more colds (it takes time for the immune system to be able to recognize and ward off cold viruses).
You don’t want your baby to suffer but you also don’t want to rack up doctor visit charges for when your baby turns out to be fine. (I would say that happens to me about half of the time.) If you are like me, and more than a little germophobic, you also cringe at the thought of taking a perfectly healthy infant into the pediatricians office at the height of cold and flu season un-neccesarily.
The bottom line is I didn’t want my baby to be unhappy if there was anything I could do about it. So I went ahead and scheduled an appointment for later that day, thinking I would have him checked out after work, just in case.
Until, I got a call from our child care. Tooth number two had made a quick and surprising appearance that morning after I dropped him off.
I decided to post-pone the doctors appointment in favor of the wait-and-see approach. That night he slept better than he had in the days prior.
Phew. I’m glad I didn’t rush into the doctor to find out that he was absolutely fine and look like an overly-anxious, paranoid mother.
(This time….)
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