The Ear Saga and the Terrible Threes

Pretty much every doctor who has taken a look in S-Boogie's ears has done the same thing: try to look in, exclaim "you have tiny ears!", and then choose a smaller otoscope attachment. Thankfully her tiny ear canals have really not caused her very many problems in the past, other than a copious amount of wax that we occasionally have to get flushed out by the doctor. When we did that last fall, the doctor told us about some drops we could buy at the store that would dissolve the wax, so I bought some and used them a few weeks ago. Well, I don't know if it's related or not, but then a little over a week later (nearly two weeks ago), S-Boogie started complaining that her ear hurt. We let it go for a day or so, and then when she was still complaining we took her in to the doctor. There was no fever, so I was surprised to find out that she had an ear infection.

Thankfully we got antibiotics and after two days of major pain the infection seemed to be clearing up. Until this past Tuesday, when she started complaining again. By Wednesday morning she was screaming when we touched her ear, and since she'd been on the antibiotic for a week I was concerned. When the doctor took a look that morning, he told me that her ear drum was now fine, but that she had an infection in her ear known as "swimmers ear". Her entire ear canal is full of wax and pus, and apparently very painful because we've had a few sleepless nights lately. Hopefully the drops they gave us will turn the tide soon because we are very tired of sore ears. And yes, we did go swimming last Saturday and even though the doctor thinks the two infections aren't related, I'm not taking chances and will never let a child with an ear infection go swimming again. And now I'm really worried about her future swimming and that the water won't drain out of her tiny ear canals. I've also decided that we're done with over-the-counter wax removal. Eesh.

Little Dude has decided that since he's almost three it's time to start acting naughty. He's generally a very sweet kid and mostly easy going. But for the last week or two he's started testing limits a lot more, whining, hitting, and generally being disagreeable. I've had some friends tell me their kids have 'terrible threes' instead of 'terrible twos' so I worry that's what we're in for here.

So the moral of the story is to never get complacent in your parenting. A few weeks ago I noted that S-Boogie had not been sick for over a year and that she had perfect attendance at school. And I told someone that Little Dude is usually pretty pleasant and easy going, but that has changed as well. Oh well; I've learned I'm just along for the ride so I might as well hold on until things get a little more stable around here. Because they always do.

Comments

M said…
We're totally in terrible threes...I know that a new baby is exacerbating the problems, but the other day I said to Ben "I used to think that we had some things to work on with Bee. Now I just want that child back!" Such is life, though, I guess.
Sarah said…
We used to say that one of ours is 3 going on 2...thankfully it was just a (long) phase! Good luck!
rantipoler said…
Poor girl - I hope she feels better soon!
Anonymous said…
do you not know about eardoc? http://eardoc.info it is the best thing for ear infections
Three was hard with my first two; my baby will be two in a week and he is getting a major head start on the naughtiness. I hope that three isn't even worse . .. .

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