How We Beat the Ear Infection... Without Antibiotics!

Let me first start of by telling you about my son, Rylan. He is amazing. I know that we have been completely blessed with such an amazingly sweet and smart boy. He was born in July 2012 with a cleft lip and palate. Children with clefts are notorious for ear infections because the Eustachian tubes do not function normally and the last thing I want for my child is to be on antibiotics repeatedly for this issue. Two months ago we resulted to prescription antibiotics for his first infection and it was horrible on his little tummy. For that reason we are committed to trying everything "alternative" that we can get our hands on from here on out. Just last week he began to get a little cranky and started pulling on his ears. Then came the low-grade fever. Dad (affectionately called "Doctor Dad") checked his ears and sure enough he could see they were beginning to become infected. My desire to whoop this thing naturally went into overdrive. I did a few internet searches, requested input form my experienced Facebook  friends and settled on a couple things I kept being told would be helpful and a few things that I knew, from my own upbringing and experience, would work to help boost little man's immune system.

I do want to make something very clear clear before I continue. 1) I am not a doctor. Nothing I say should be taken as medical advice - I'm simply sharing what we did and what the results were. My dad is our pediatrician and he was fine with us using the protocol below to "treat" this most current ear infection. Always clear these types of treatments with your child's doctor.

So let's start with some background -

BACKGROUND on RYLAN
Since Rylan has a cleft lip/palate he is not able to nurse however I am committed to pumping 4x per day so he can have breastmilk daily. I am a firm believe that "Breast is Best!" As a result I use the best supplements possible for my own nutrition and health - Isagenix shakes, C-lyte complex, IsaOmegas, IsaCalcium, etc. etc. For more info on my personal plan you can contact me directly. In addition to mother's milk Rylan also receives a couple ounces of unsweetened coconut milk in his bottle. Coconut milk is high in lauric acid which is the same immunity-builder in breastmilk.

SO WHAT DID WE DO?


1. CARROT JUICE
We are a juicing family and have been since I was in high school. My mom taught us well! There are so many wonderful benefits to juicing and carrots the KING. Each of Rylan's bottles had anywhere from 1-2oz of well-strained, freshly juiced carrot. To save some prep time during the week I froze some carrot juice in ice cube trays and simply added a few cubes before warming the bottles.

2. BARLEY GREEN
    This time around Rylan received a little more Barley Green in his bottles throughout the day. On a regular day I will add about 1/2 tsp 2x per day. During a health crisis I add 1/2 tsp to every bottle except the one prior to bedtime. It's amazing stuff!

3. COLLOIDAL SILVER
    Prior to his bottle I would give Rylan approximately 0.5mL of Colloidal Silver. It naturally promotes the immune system to help fight infections better. It is tasteless and he was very accepting of it.

4. ESSENTIAL OILS
    I found a GREAT website with directions on using specific essential oils to help ear infections in adults. Thankfully it had a note at the bottom about adapting it for infants and children. Whenever essiential oils are used on children they MUST be cut with another oil such as Olive Oil in a 1:1 ratio (1 drop essential oil for every 1 drop of olive oil).
    You can find the website here. The oils used are Eucalyptus and Rosemary. Eucalyptus prepares the ear while Rosemary is known to fight infections and viruses. I found it easiest to mix the olive oil and esseitial oils separately in liquid medicine cups. Once mixed I soaked a Q-tip in the mixtures and applied the oil behind Rylan's ears, down the side of his neck and onto his collar bone area per the instructions shown. I did this nightly for a week.

5. GARLIC EAR DROPS
    Originally I had a hard time bringing myself to do this one. I bought the drops at Earthfare and couldn't wait to use them until I smelled them. Yup. Those are GARLIC drops. I eventually decided that my son's health and comfort was more important than how he smelled. I warmed the container in some warm water and, while Rylan was sleeping at night, gently dropped 1-2 drops in his ear. He smelled like an Italian restaurant for days and I affectionately dubbed him "Garlic-head."

6. INFANT PROBIOTIC
    Lastly, in 2-3 bottles I added approximately 1/8 tsp of the Infant Pro-biotic that I found at Earthfare. Normally I'll just do the probiotic once daily.

Long story short - after about 10 days Doctor Dad confirmed a we were TOTALLY CLEAR of any infection! It's amazing what the body can do when we flood it with proper nutrition and utilize proper immunity-building supplements during a health crisis. I hope this may be helpful for those parents out there who desire a more natural approach to health and, in particular, fighting childhood ailments - such as ear infections - with some other than modern antibiotics. Please don't hesitate to contact me for any questions about this protocol or about my own nutritional program. God bless!