You might share with the Mom that if she doesn't get that child's ear
fluid under control soon, her language develoment will suffer.  A friend
of mine didn't get tubes in her son's ears until he was two (US military
doctors never suggested it to her), and he has had speech, language and
developmental delays (and disabilities) as a result.  Remember, even
when the ear drum has not burst, it is so full of fluid that to that
child, everything sounds like it's under water.  And this age (18
months) is critical for absorbing language.  (And a ruptured ear drum is
one of the most painful events imaginable, though I've heard it's a
relief after the discomfort that precedes it.)  She shouldn't try to do
things by halves, at this point.  She should _act_.

When my son got his first tubes at 18 months, he stared at us silently,
shocked and open mouthed, for a month.  Up until then, all of his
speech-babble sounded like he had a mouth full of rocks (probably
because that's what WE sounded like to HIM).  But after having the tubes
for a month, he was able to hear enough that his language kicked in and
he was able to actually communicate for the first time in his life.

We were not able to eliminate his ear and sinus problems by removing
milk from his diet, but with switching to soy formula, getting eardrum
tubes, and using corticosteroid nasal sprays, we were able to keep it
under some semblance of control.

We also noticed a hyperactivity relation to milk consumption (although
without milk he still has the problem, it becomes Extremely Pronounced
with milk).  (Feingold diet, sugars, and other food sensitivity
elimination/searches didn't affect him at all, for whatever that's
worth.)

I have more "story" to share but will save it for another post.  I'm new
to the group and have been trying to restrain myself until I'd followed
for a while (it's been two weeks!)

Trish

Susan Martin wrote:
>
> I would like to ask a question for a friend who has an 18 months who has had
> 3 ear infections in the past 2 months, basically an open burst ear with
> off/on infected pus oozing.  She has had a different flu every two weeks for
> the last 4 months which could account for some of it.  My concern was dairy.
> [snip]  She has patches of mild eczema which her mother calls winter
> rash in the winter and heat rash in the summer.  Her dad has asthma, her mom
> some fruit allergies, the grandparents had hayfever and insect anaphylaxis.
> The question is-- does the amt of milk count or is the ear connection
> related to consumption in any amount?