Swimmer’s Ear? “Let’s Time It!”

Ahhhh, summertime: the warm days of playing outdoors, swimming until your fingers prune and otitis media.

Wait, what?

For many families, summertime is synonymous with recurring ear infections stemming from long days spent bobbing in oceans, rivers, lakes or swimming pools.

Swimmer’s Ear, as it is sometimes called, can come on quickly, last for days, and be very painful.

If you’re a mother, you know all too well that lump in your throat when you realize your child is sick. If their suffering is severe, it’s like somebody punched you in the stomach.

Unless you have homeopathy.

It was Easter Day, and my son was about 4-5 years old. Relatives were starting to arrive at our house for our traditional Easter dinner when my son landed in my lap with a bright red face and a high fever (around 104° if I remember correctly).

He was crying, crying, crying, even screaming from ear pain and spacey from the fever.

My aunt asked me, “What are you going to do? Are you going to take him to the doctor on Easter?”

I said, “No. Watch this.” And I gave him one dose of Belladonna 30. Self-assuredly, I continued, “Let’s time it! I'll bet that in about 40 minutes he'll be asleep.”

I kid you not — within 30 minutes, he quieted enough to fall asleep and slept through the entire day!

I knew that his falling asleep was a reassuring piece of information about his recovery.

When the human body is under siege, in that much pain, no one can sleep. But when the body has received the correct remedy to uproot the condition, it can finally relax and drift off, effectively saying, “Okay … it’s time to heal.” So, unless it’s a head injury, I welcome sleep as a sign of imminent healing.

Sound asleep all day, my son missed the entire celebration — including Easter dinner.

Now, you have to understand that this particular son loves food. In fact, almost every childhood picture we have of him has some sort of food either in front of him, being eaten by him, scattered around him, or sometimes even all over him!

He was undoubtedly very sick to miss Easter dinner completely (especially considering our traditional dessert was his absolute favorite — my cassata cake).

But around 6 o’clock that night, he finally emerged just as the family was leaving.

He trotted right up to my aunt, smiling, fever-free, pain-free and hungry — eager to scarf down leftovers from the Easter dinner he had missed. She was stunned at his complete transformation. She looked at me wide-eyed and said, “Wow! Really?” But then, as a bit of skepticism kicked in, she added, “How do you know it won’t come back again later?”

Without batting an eye, I replied confidently, “If it does, I’ll give him another dose.”

(And I was confident — confident enough to have timed it, for crying out loud!)

Remember, healing doesn’t always happen that quickly or with just one dose. That’s why this particular event was so memorable!

Sometimes, an ear infection will require repeating Belladonna as an SOS, generally used every 1-12 hours depending on the severity of the pain.

If his ear infection had presented with oozing, I also would have added Hepar sulph 200 twice a day, in addition to the Belladonna for pain. In my previous blog, Did I Hear You Right? A Natural Swimmer’s Ear Remedy, I mentioned Hepar sulph 30 as a popularly used potency.

It still is, but I have grown; I have changed my ways. I find that Hepar sulph in a 200 potency works better in most situations.

Alternatively, if he had contracted Swimmer’s Ear from getting chilled — for instance, if he had jumped into our very cold-water pond on a very hot day — I would have chosen Aconitum 30, which is especially effective after a shock to the system.

We mothers bear the responsibility — and the emotional burden — of our family’s health. When one of them is sick, we live with that unrelenting sense of foreboding.

We don’t want our loved ones to suffer for one minute longer than necessary. Granted, we can’t always set a timer for their healing, but with homeopathy, we can know — with confidence — that their return to health often happens just in time for leftovers.

Warmly,

P.S. If you’d like to learn more about dealing with infections homeopathically, consider my course The Antibiotic Alternative. If you avoid antibiotics and assist the body in fighting off infections the natural way, you will have the best chance of avoiding chronic health problems and leading a genuinely drug-free life.