Some rules of thumb for recognizing when a cold has developed into an ear infection that may require medical attention:


1. When the discharge from your child’s nose changes from clear and watery to thick and green or yellow.

2. When your child has a cold andyellow drainage from the eyes.

3. Personality changes from happy to cranky with disturbed night-time sleep.

These signs will indicate that your child’s cold has very likely progressed into an ear infection, at which time medical attention should be sought as soon as possible.

Occassionally a child with an ear infection will seem to improve during the day after a difficult night, please do not mistake this as a sign that the infection has become less serious. What is happening is that when a child is lying down the fluid in the ear will build up pressure against the ear drum causing greater discomfort than when the child is upright, you still should take your child in to see the doctor as soon as possible.

Prevention Tip: Don’t put a child to bed with a bottle, this has been shown to predispose the middle ear to infection, although breast feeding while lying down has not shown any negative effect on the ear.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites