New Member; Atypical Child With Atypical Ent Situation Posted: 06-02-05 21:57pm
Hello, all. My son is 7 and has a mild
form of autism. We have been to hell and
back (pardon my language!) with ent
issues, which seems to be common among
autistics. I say "back," because we now
rely mostly on homeopathy and our health
is worlds better than it was when we used
to rely on conventional medicine.
He has just been through a period with
lots of yellow/green nasal discharge (now
cleared) and a high fever (about 38.5 c
for several days; now normal to low
grade). During all this he's had
transient ear pain, and this morning an
ent doc said his ear canals are red, but
his eardrums are perfectly normal. (two
days ago a pediatrician said his ear
canals were so red and swollen that she
couldn't even see his eardrums.) so far,
he has not had any visible discharge from
either ear.
Question: why would a head cold cause an
*outer* ear infection? This has happened
before, and the ent doc can't seem to
explain it, nor does he seem curious. (we
need a new doc, I know, but in the
meantime . . .) could this be caused by
something simple like scratching the ear
with a dirty finger (he actually doesn't
do this much), or even resting on a pillow
where a dirty tissue had been placed? Or
could we be looking at some sort of
atypical immune response (also common
among autistics)?
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NoRelief
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 7 Location: Australia
Posted: 06-05-05 07:48am
Firstly, i'm sorry to hear of you, your
family's and your son's plight in this
matter.
Secondly, I am not a medical expert, by
any means, but I have an interest in many
sciences, etc., including biology and
related fields
in most cases I would tend to think that
contact with most 'household' sources of
bacteria (including things like dirty
tissues) would not lead to infections of
this nature, much less using a pillow that
has come into contact with such, unless
the source was particularly virile. I.E.
The difference between a normal dirty
tissue and a dirty tissue that was used
by, say, a contagious flu sufferer.
From what you described, I personally do
not think this sounds like an outer ear
infection, strictly speaking. I would be
more inclined to think it was a middle ear
infection that may have penetrated further
than the ear drum, how or where into I
could not say. I'm not sure as to how a
middle ear infection would be able to
cause the ear canal to swell like you have
described, however, I would propose that
what has occurred is that an outer ear
infection has possibly arisen from a nasal
infection that has spread into the outer
ear via the middle ear.
Your description of a yellow/green nasal
discharge and fever would seem to indicate
a nasal or middle ear infection and this
would be my suspicion in locating a source
of infection.
If the problem persists, my advice would
be to push the point with the your family
doctor and/or ent doctor. I'm in
australia, so I can only speak from a
relatively small realm of experience,
however I would advocate finding a doctor
that is willing to take more of an
interest in this: a doctor that cannot
explain a condition and then is not
curious about it's occurrence does not
sound like a doctor that is taking you
seriously.
I also find that a number of doctors I
have been to seem to think that if they
cannot see anything wrong, then there is
nothing wrong (and therefore the it's in
the patient's head).
Regardless of whether you stay with your
current doctors or find better ones, be
sure to labour the point and push to get
what you want. Do not stop until you are
satisfied that nothing more can be done.
Of course expense will be a factor, and
here again I sympathise if this is not a
meetable requirement, as I am currently a
poor man myself undergoing expensive and
continual ent consultation as well as
university study.
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MomAndaHalf
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 02 Jun 2005 Posts: 2
Posted: 06-05-05 15:59pm
Thanks for your reply. It turned out
that, just as you say, he does have a
double middle ear infection that spread to
the ear canals. Again just as you say,
the first doctor was not taking us
seriously and was giving us the bum's
rush. (i guess the chronic, regular
patients are just more lucrative and worth
more of his time. So much for
professionalism.) fortunately, friends on
my neighborhood mom's grapevine *do* take
me seriously and helped me locate a better
doctor.
And i'm pleased to report that we have not
had to give him antibiotics. We gave the
new doctor's information to our homeopath,
she had another think, and her new remedy
suggestion hit the mark. My son is now
clearly on the mend. The new ent doc was
very understanding about our wish to avoid
medication and is perfectly willing to
give us follow-up checks until his
eardrums are completely back to normal.
Fwiw, this doctor's opinion is that,
theoretically, a child with a headcold
could definitely give himself or herself
an outer ear infection by sticking a
finger partway into the canal to scratch.
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NoRelief
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 7 Location: Australia
Posted: 06-05-05 23:36pm
Glad to hear this has been remedied.
Yes, I did miss the obvious :wink: ... I
forgot cross-contamination from
site-to-site, this is completely
understandable considering many nasal and
middle/outer ear infections are similar,
and the locations are so closely
associated and located.
Your resolution makes me more seriously
consider an alternative therapeutic
approach for my own ent problems,
something i've been considering for a
while but haven't actually looked into.
