The current treatment for frequent ear infections is antibiotics and/or pain medications. When the ear infections become too frequent the use of ear tubes might be recommended.
Let’s take a broader look at the problem so that ear infections can be prevented in the first place.
There are two issues that need to be addressed:
- First is to keep good growth of the friendly bacteria in the gut as they are the first line of defense against infections. Repeated use of antibiotics will set the stage for future ear infections as they destroy this beneficial bacteria in the gut. I have broken the cycle of repeated ear infections using our good probiotics for children. See my book Healing the Thyroid With Ayurveda where I give a lengthy discussion on Probiotic companies.
- You must not feed the baby or child food that would clog their tiny ear canals which breeds infections.
According to Ayurveda, foods that are channel-clogging are cold dairy products such as cold milk, ice cream, Greek and regular yogurt, frozen yogurt, hard aged cheeses, nut butters (peanut butter, almond butter, etc), bananas (are highly mucus forming and congesting). Don’t give your baby mashed avocados until age two. While they contain wonderful fats, the baby’s digestive tract is too weak to digest them. They will just clog the delicate ear channels. Formulas clog the ear canals so please make every attempt to breastfeed for at least the first year.
Also avoid sweets if there is any sign of congestion. These foods create kapha, or heaviness, and will increase the mucus formation.
These guidelines are an effective treatment for frequent ear infections. This is very important to learn because the frequent use of antibiotics in one’s youth sets the stage for food allergies and autoimmune diseases a little later in life as they disrupt normal immune function.
Keep in mind, it’s imperative that the friendly bacteria grow unimpeded in the early childhood years as they stabilize the immune system function, preventing it from over-reacting to foods and spiraling out of control to the point where your immune system loses its intelligence and attacks you, called autoimmune.
Thousands of people I see with food allergies, digestive complaints, yeast infections and autoimmune diseases took numerous rounds of antibiotics in their youth.
Click here to read my tips on treatment for fungal and other skin infections.