Ear Infection Forum

Blog? Do I have a blog anymore?!? I am constantly amazed at how life swallows me up and the days fly by in a blurry haze.

Anyways, the recent issue in our family (besides debating over possible baby names) has been in regards to ear infections. Truthfully, I know little about ear infections -- what causes them, symptoms, etc. I have a vague misgiving about using antibiotics too quickly (or any medicine for that matter) for ear infections especially because of the potential of creating anti-biotic resistant strains of bacteria in my kids. Besides the fact that I hate the generality of antibiotics. Good bacteria in our bodies are good and I hate having to kill the good germies along with the bad ones.

Last week Clive came down with something. At first it seemed like a simple runny nose/cough thing that we thought may have been teething related. He woke up several nights coughing so we fired up the humidifier, gave him lots of honey throughout the day (which Clive ever-so-cutely called his "honey medicine"), and propped him up in bed with pillows so his head was elevated. We even resorted to tylenol a few nights when nothing else was cutting it. Believe me, after one extremely long hour of trying to get him to sleep on me and my bulging baby belly I was ready to try anything!

He improved after 3-4 days and eventually his cough dissipated and his runny nose dried up. BUT the weird aspect was that Clive started sucking his fingers. Continually. So much so that I gave up trying to prevent his finger-sucking ways he was an unsightly drooly mess.

Matt insisted on taking Clive to the doctor a few days ago even though Clive's symptoms were almost totally gone. The doc confirmed that Clive had an ear infection. What I HATE is that the doc didn't qualify the infection. Having an ear infection is one thing but was it bad enough to warrant antibiotic use? Apparently so as the doc sent Matt home with a scrip for Amoxicillin.

You can probably sense the conflict which arose between Matt and I on this subject. After doing a tiny bit of research, I found that it's good practice to wait a few days to see if the infection will clear up on its own (hence proving it was a viral infection and not bacterial). I won't go into the gory details of our confrontation but I successfully convinced Matt to wait a few days before filling the scrip.

Today was our agreed-upon day of reckoning for Clive. I took him into the doc for one more check of his ear to see if it was truly worthy of anti-biotic pummeling. By today, Clive was totally himself. Absolutely no symptoms and he's even stopped the dreadful finger-sucking.

The doc confirmed that Clive's ear is healed! Only a tiny bit of fluid still remains and the doc commended me for NOT treating the infection with meds. ! The doc also told me a surprising fact -- that 2/3rds of ear infections will clear up on their own without anti-biotic intervention.

What's your stance and experience with ear infections?

Belated Valentine's Day Wishes!

We've had a busy eventful week and hence, I've been neglectful of my blog yet again. My mom was here visiting this weekend and we thoroughly enjoyed her (and her new iphone).

Our Valentine's Day was rather busy as we were scheduled to serve in our church nursery. Since our church is so massive, that means we serve once every 5 weeks and we work during two back-to-back services. It also means we have to leave earlier than usual. It's always a stressful race to beat the clock on Sunday mornings!

I had little v-day gifts on waiting on the table for everyone in the morning. I had some leftover pancakes so I cut them into heart shapes and warmed them up for the kiddos. Matt also surprised me with roses, new crayons for Chloe, a new dino for Clive and a box of chocolates for my mom.

When my mom comes to visit she always pushes us out the door for a date night. :) Believe me, she doesn't have to push us too hard. And the kids are getting old enough that they remember Gramma's special babysitting nights and they do a great job! This past Saturday night, the kids didn't even bat an eye when we exited for our date. I felt as though I was interrupting just to give them goodbye hugs and kisses!

Needless to say, we ALL had a great date night. Matt and I used a gift card for dinner out, browsed World Market (I love that place and never get to wander through it's interesting aisles), and then we went to see the highly-acclaimed movie Avatar. Excellent flick! Much better than I expected it to be.

Since our family holidays always revolve around food, my mom and I planned a special v-day feast for dinner. We attempted to cook a london broil steak (turned out rather chewy but still good), mashed potatoes, cheddar cheese puffs (INCREDIBLY YUMMY), salad, and tiramisu for dessert.

How did you celebrate Valentine's Day?

How do you hot cocoa?

For the last week our corner of northeast Ohio has gotten a goodly amount of snow. Yes! Finally!

In my opinion, if we're going to endure the cold temps of winter, we might as well have some nice clean white snow cover on the ground instead of dirty looking slush.

In a blast of unexpected motivation, I bundled up the kiddos twice yesterday for some outdoor snow romping. Thankfully, Chloe can get herself almost totally bundled. Whew. Clive on the other hand is a squirmy wormy and I have to keep dragging him back to don him with the next necessary piece of winter wear.

Anyways, after some hard core snow playing (after which Clive balled at having to come inside) we warmed up with hot cocoa. To my shame I must admit I've never made hot cocoa from scratch until this year. It's delicious and far superior to those sad little instant cocoa packets!

Last night I strayed from the standard cocoa recipe and added some crushed peppermints to the cocoa pot. YUM!

I'd like to do some more hot cocoa experimenting . . . . especially with the mexican chocolate sitting idle in my cupboard (it's a hard chocolate wedge mixed with cinnamon and sugar).

How do you make your hot cocoa? Any interesting variations you'd like to share?

Chloe's Disappointing First Dental Visit

This morning the kids and I headed to the Small Smiles dental clinic for Chloe's first ever dental visit. We had read some dentist-type books and almost every mom I talked to (or that commented on FB) reassured me of what would happen on the first visit. According to them, the first visit would be a simple tooth-counting and comfort-building chair sitting experience for Chloe. And of course a brand new toothbrush to culminate the event. Sounded pretty non-threatening and even sort of fun!

This morning at breakfast, I was giving Chloe the expectation run-down again so she'd know exactly what would happen. Chloe is a sweetie but she is a girl that doesn't roll with the unexpected well. She needs time to feel comfortable and letting her know exactly what will happen seems to ease her fears.

Anyways, Chloe was excited about the dentist visit and said animatedly, "I sure hope I get a new princess toothbrush at the dentist!" She even dressed up her favorite teddy bear in baby clothes and brought him along for the occasion.

As soon as we walked into the clinic door, I had a foreboding feeling. The lobby was VERY crowded and felt more like a daycare center than the comforting low-key lobby experience I had envisioned. Nonetheless, the kiddos settled in to play while I filled out the paperwork. And then we waited. And waited. And waited some more! It was 45 minutes before Chloe's name was called.

After a brief introduction, the dental hygienist took us back and instead of asking us anything curtly stated she would start by taking x-rays of Chloe's mouth. Sphincter say what?!? I tried not to let my hyper-mommy-alarm bells go crazy and decided instead to go with the flow and see how Chloe did. My girl was all smiles until the hygienist shoved the x-ray slide into her mouth. And then Chloe lost it -- with good reason too. The hygienist did NOT prepare Chloe for what was happening and I tried my best to comfort her from out in the hallway. Needless to say, the x-ray photography session did not happen. Chloe kept crying and was obviously scared.

The WORST part was the hygienist's impatience and obvious frustration with Chloe's meltdown. She just kept telling Chloe to stop crying and to be a good girl or she wouldn't get a toy. Hello?!? What 4 year old is going to stop crying on a dime for a stranger who is doing foreign things and is telling her she's not being good? I was starting to get seriously ticked off. I asked the hygienist to stop and that we'd have to do the x-rays on our next visit.

Moving on, the hygienist brought us to a huge room with about 8 dental chairs all filled with kiddos having various procedures done. Again, the mommy-alarm-bells started ringing like crazy. Talk about a distracting, loud and scary place! Chloe, unnerved and whimpering by this point, was not trusting this hygienist chic. It didn't help that the lady lowered Chloe in the dentist chair without warning. Chloe's tears started again (and so did my tears - I hated seeing my baby girl fall apart) and I quickly saw that wisest course of action was to split. I told the hygienist we were going home and we'd reschedule.

UGH. What a yucky experience! I truly think the worst part of it was the hygienist's use of bribery and her scolding impatient manner. I spent the entire ride home reassuring Chloe that I was not mad at her and she was not "bad" for being scared. I think it was perfectly natural and reasonable for Chloe to be frightened given the circumstances.

We will NOT be going back to that crazy clinic again. We're taking my little girl's teeth elsewhere!

What have your kids' dental experiences been like?