Has anyone tried garlic oil for ear infections?

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Question: Has anyone tried garlic oil for ear infections?

We think Meredith might have an ear infection. Yesterday she had a fever and she told Kevin’s mom, while she was changing her diaper, “Ear hurt” and then she pointed to her left ear.

This morning I asked her once again if her ear hurt. She said, “Mmmm, hmmm. Grandma! Beep!” (She was referring to when her temperature got taken yesterday by grandma and she had to wait for the beep.) Since Meredith is only 20 months we don’t consider her veracity very reliable—it’s probably more likely that she remembered yesterday’s events than that her ear continues to hurt. Today her fever is gone and she is acting like her normal, chipper self again.

So, basically, I don’t know what to do. Let me know what you think of this article (excerpt) below, written by Dr. Lynne Paige Walker and taken from “Nature’s Pharmacy: Break the Drug Cycle with Safe Natural Treatments for 200 Everyday Ailments.”

I’ve never been much into natural remedies but I’ve read a lot of stuff online that garlic oil works to eliminate pain from ear infections. Then, just this morning, I read the information below. If even half of what they say in this book is true, I find it compelling.

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Ear Infections

Despite aggressive treatment, otitis media, or middle-ear infection, has reached epidemic proportions in American children. Called the bread and butter of the pediatrician, its treatment grosses at least $1 billion annually.

Standard drug treatment for ear infections is with antibiotics, but the ailment often fails to respond even to repeated courses of these drugs. The majority of ear infections are caused by viruses, for which antibiotics don’t work; and the widespread use of antibiotics has led to the widespread development of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.

A landmark Swedish study involving 2,145 patients shows that for the majority of ear infections, antibiotics may do more harm that good. Not only did ear infections not go away any faster when treated with the drugs, but children treated with them were 30 percent more likely to have a recurrence of the infection. For those treated with antibiotics from the first day of the disease, recurrences were 40 percent more likely. The chance of repeat infection within a month of the previous one was more than twice as great in children treated with antibiotics as in those not treated. And in those treated with antibiotics from the first day of the disease, it was nearly three times as great.

The researchers noted that ear infection recurrences are on the increase and concluded that routine early administration of antibiotics may be responsible. The drugs depress the immunological response to bacteria, preventing the development of natural antibodies and interfering with the development of natural immunity. That explains why the earlier they’re given the more frequent are relapses of the disease. Antibiotics also permit overgrowths by resistant Candida microbes, which then produce toxins that can weaken the immune system and further reduce the child’s resistance.

Results of the Swedish study were confirmed in a study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1987. Over 500 children with middle-ear infections were given either (1) an antibiotic alone (the popular amoxicillin), (2) that antibiotic along with a decongestant-antihistamine, or (3) a placebo. After four weeks, no significant differences were found in the children’s conditions. Neither drug provided any advantage over no drugs at all, confirming earlier research. Other studies of children with otitis media with fluid in the ears have found that the majority of cases resolved by the following month without treatment.

That doesn’t mean you have to ignore your suffering child who is screaming and pulling at her ears. Effective natural remedies are available to ease pain while the ears heal.

One is Mullein Oil Ear Drops. Mullein has narcotic properties. While it’s a strong painkiller, it doesn’t produce the lightheadedness or psychological aberrations of narcotic drugs. Applied directly in the ear, it quiets irritated nerves, relieves pain, and soothes inflammation. Other helpful herbs are Echinacea and elderberry.

Home remedies when you can’t make it to an herb shop include a few drops of plain fresh onion juice, squeezed in a garlic press right into the ear. Cotton can be applied afterwards to hold the juice in. Fresh-squeezed garlic oil, warmed on a spoon over the stove, is also good.