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.
Great story, Joette! Oh how I wish that my chronic childhood ear infections would have been resolved with homeopathy instead of antibiotics. My life would have taken a must different path. So grateful for you!!!
My daughter just healed up from swimmer’s ear thanks to Belladonna! She has a tendency toward issues with her ears and throat, but thanks to homeopathy, she won’t also suffer the negative effects of too many antibiotics like I did. Thank you for sharing your wisdom. You have helped me be a healer for my kids and I feel so empowered to give them a lifetime of better health than I had!anan
Excellent
Can we have your Cassata Cake recipe? <3
You’re hysterical!
Looking for Paola’s message..Am I on the right page?
Excellent medicines. And it is grace of almighty in the hands of a experienced homeopath.
I have one ear (right ear) that itches very badly intermetently. The only thing that relieves the itch is using a wet q-tip. Do you have any homeopathic remedy to suggest? This has been going on for years!
The solution you seek will be far more valuable to you if you find it (for free) on this blog by digging around regarding itchy skin, by joining one of our study groups (Gateway to Homeopathy) or by taking one of my courses (Skin, the Ugly Truth).
Do you discuss water on the ear anywhere? I have a 3 year old, tiny, twin granddaughter who was pre-mature and has hearing loss from water on the ear.
I don’t discuss this in a blog. But I wouldn’t commit to the diagnosis of water on the ear but rather the diagnosis of hearing loss.
Somewhat related: hubs had wax build up that was plugging his ear (and maybe a bout of fluid from the shower) and I read somewhere about conium being good for that. I decided to alternate that with silica to push it out. It seemed to help. We originally put hydrogen peroxide in the ear but that didn’t seem to relieve it. Of course after the alternating remedies and his ears poppping open more and more after every dose, he still gave credit to the hydrogen peroxide. Eventually he’ll have to come around. I need a remedy for a stubborn husband. 😉 Would love your thoughts on my alternating remedy idea that I used. Much love. Go homeopathy. I’m addicted
Silica happens to be good medicine for inner ear conditions so for that reason it was good consideration. It is not a useful medicine to push out something soft. It has a reputation for pushing out slivers, embedded glass, splintered bone, etc.
Hi Joette,
My daughter got some type of bug from her older siblings,that only lasted a couple of days for them.The symptoms were ear pain,redness in the eye (probably viral pink eye as it wasn’t oozing),a but of cough with sore throat.They went back to normal fairly quick with herbal extracts ,colloidal silver and of course homeopathic remedies.My youngest on the other hand,not so much.She did have the cough,stuffy nose,some mild fever for half a day and ear pain.She is now left,after a bit over 2 weeks,with a mild cough and stuffy nose.I decided to buy Doctor Mom Otoscope to just have around the house.
Let me say that I was shocked by what I saw in her ears,especially the one on the stuffy nostril.There was this weird white piece of something. I remember her blowing her nose before where a piece of “meat” came out of her nose while crying that her ear was hurting.The pain stopped,so we thought she’s fine.I use colloidal silver and homeopathic ear drops.
One ear got better,but not the side with the stuffy nostril (we do saline water for that).I even removed dairy from her diet,as I believe now that she may be sensitive to it,as I am.
I know you can’t take her case,but wondering if Hepar sulph will help with this.
Thank you.
HS is certainly in the running.
I urge you to consider my online courses such as Good Gut Bad Gut where you’ll learn at your own pace how to uproot food intollerances.
You’ll find it here:
https://courses.joettecalabrese.com/
Would you write about homeopathic remedies for clearing earwax blockage? Upon getting older, earwax occasions water getting stopped up when I shower, an alternative to going to the ENT for vaccuming out my ears, to avoid any infection-similar to swimmer’s ear. Preventing the excessive earwax, that stops up the ear, or is excessive, to clear the ear blockage, which ones could be used, please discuss, ledum, causticum, pulsatilla, conium, spigelia, or merc sol?