My son starting having chronic ear infections at the age of 6 months. Docs blamed daycare and gave him tons of antibiotics. They never worked. He had tubes at 10 months after I took him to several docs for second opinions and did tons of research. I didn't want the tubes but I was worried about his hearing.

Two weeks after the tubes were in he had 2 new ear infections. I had been concerned the whole time that the tubes treated the symptom and not the cause. It never seemed like David had an illness because the ears NEVER cleared in between.. They were just constantly infected. It seemed like it could be an allergy. We almost got rid of our pets! In addition, he had a yucky cough and lots of sneezing. People would stop and ask if he was sick, but I would explain that he wasn't and was just always congested.

His father is allergic to everything so I suspected allergies. WE got the rast testing done even though they didn't think they'd find anything. (We have dogs and cats.) Everything came up negative. I switched to soy formula for about a week to see if that helped because I had heard bad things about dairy. It didn't. I didn't know what to do.

From the age of 6 months until the age of 10 months, David was pumped full of antibiotics and was miserable with thrush. He was literally medicated for over 4 months straight with antibiotics...then had the tubes...then more infections. That's when I went for alternative care. She gave him several supplements which really helped. His constant fever was gone that night.

The supplements helped, but I wasn’t sure about everything I was giving him. After stopping the supplements, he was miserable again with two obvious infections along with coughing and sneezing. (It never really went away with the supplements. He just got much better!)

Finally, about 10 days ago I did more research and continued to read about a link between dairy and mucus. I had asked my docs about this when he was young...they brushed me off. One even said, "You read too much." He didn't like that I was out there educating myself about what could be wrong with my child. I was so frustrated!

Well, David was 14 months now and on solid foods with about 16 ounces of organic cow's milk a day...some days a little more. He also ate a lot of cheese. Well, sure enough...within 2 days of cutting out dairy we could no longer hear that yucky breathing in his throat. He was no longer sneezing...and his ears weren't draining anymore! (His ears would be disgusting each morning from them being infected. The tubes were draining the ears of all the junk like they were supposed to do.) I couldn't believe it because they had given me a nebulizer and all kinds of albuteral and some other medications because they were baffled at his breathing. He used to sound like he had asthma because he had such loud breathing, but they would listen to his lungs and they'd be clear. So they had us doing treatments just in case he was asthmatic.

He was also late at walking. I think it was due to the equilibrium problems that constant ear infections can cause. He started walking well just days after the dairy was cut out.

I did some experimenting, and it does get worse again when I let him have dairy. I've read that the casein, a milk protein, can cause allergies that result in excessive mucus. In babies, this can be more that a yucky cough or a stuffy nose. It can be ear infections because of the way the Eustachian tubes are and because babies lie down so much. Dairy allergies can cause digestive problems AND respiratory problems, and a lot of people don't know that. That's why many docs say to avoid dairy when you have a cold.

Well, why didn't taking him off dairy work before? All we can figure is that we tried it when he was still consuming about 32 ounces of milk-based formula a day. If we had taken him off it for about a month or so, we would have probably seen a difference. (I've heard of that happening.) I think it took a lot less time to get it out of his system this time around because he simply wasn’t consuming as much.

So now I'm sharing my story. I'm still trying to figure out how much dairy David can tolerate without getting yucky ears and a gross cough. I also have read the casein can be found in other products that seem to be non-dairy. I know it's used to make the glue that holds furniture together, so I'm not surprised that it can cause problems when humans consume it.

I’d love to hear from any other parents out there whose children have had problems with ear infections. I think it’s terrible that doctors are recommending ear tubes in infants and toddlers without working hard to find the underlying cause. Tubes DO often fix the problem by draining the ear, but that doesn’t take care of the underlying cause. I’ve read about parents who have avoided tubes completely by eliminating an allergen. I’ve also heard of parents whose child has gone through tubes 3 and 4 times! It’s a multi-million dollar industry. It has taken off in the last few decades. The ear infection is the number one reason for visits to the pediatrician in the US. You’d think docs would want to figure out what is causing the epidemic. All children are different and need to be treated as individuals. I know David was given way too many antibiotics. When they didn’t work after 3 months, why didn’t anybody want to know what could be causing the constant ear problems? Why were hubby and I the only ones looking for alternatives to tubes and antibiotics?

As mommy suspected (and tried to the tell the docs before they put
tubes in), David is JUST LIKE HUBBY.  We finally found someone to do the
skin testing (after being told that it wouldn't be done on a baby) and
we are SO GLAD we had it done.

Well, David was only testing for about 10 allergens because he is so
young, and he reacted to ALMOST ALL of them.  He's allergic to grass,
dustmites, mold, mildew, dogs, and cow's milk.  Since I eliminated
cow's milk a month ago, there has been NO stuffiness, coughing, or ear
infections, so we know that's the worst of it.  However, it was
probably a combination of everything during that first year that made
him so ill.  (Being on tons of unnecessary antibiotics certainly didn't
help.)

Nice to meet everyone!

Jan
Mommy to David (15 months)