The Simple Cure

Okay, so remember I took my two year old to the chiropractor to cure an ear infection? Well, it didn't work. In fairness, he was extremely upset (read PANIC) and screaming and fighting the whole time, so there is the chance that his fighting caused the doctor to not be able to get the adjustment done just right. He panics over everything. Literally. Baths, doctors offices, potty chairs, etc. And I have a friend who swears by the chiropractor treatments, so no offense to the chiropractor. It probably would have worked for any other child.

However, after the two year old stopped eating because every bite hurt his ear, and stopped drinking because he couldn't suck without pain (and insists on only drinking out of one particular type of cup) it became clear that something different had to happen. We were giving him children's Motrin in his drinks (because medicine panics him too) and now he wasn't taking that either.

Problem was that we were into Memorial Day weekend, and this week my daughter, who usually fills in for me when I have to be gone from the daycare was going to be out of town for two days, so the earliest I would have been able to get him to the doctor would have been Thursday. As in this coming Thursday. There was no way he was going to be okay that long. Add to that the fact that we were just at the doctor's office, and he developed the ear infection in the middle of a round of antibiotics. I didn't hold out a lot of hope for that cure working. Not to mention that going that route would mean a 77 mile drive (one way) plus $100 doctor bill, plus medication that would then be impossible to get him to take, and probably take another week to kick in.

So, I did what any reasonable mother would do. I googled home cures for ear aches. And I came up with the suggestion to cook garlic in olive oil, let it cool a bit to the point of just being warm, then put that in his ear and massage behind his ear from the little indentation between the jaw and the head, pulling downward toward the lymph nodes. Of course all this made him ... you guessed it ... PANIC. But at least we got it done. (He was really mad at me though.) I ended up having to do it twice - about 4 hours apart. But then, magically, no more ear ache. He had that ear ache for over a week and was in so much pain he couldn't eat or drink. And all it took was a little garlic and a tablespoon of oil. Seriously! Why didn't I ever know this before? It will now be my go-to cure for any ear aches in the future. Gotta love a "free" cure!!

I'm convinced that there are a lot more of these "home remedies" that ought to be tried for all sorts of problems. Our grandmothers didn't run to the doctor for every little problem. And antibiotics are a relatively new cure which I have always thought were over-prescribed. There is a pill for everything, but often taking the pill gives you worse symptoms (or different ones) that then have to be treated with other pills. No thanks. I think from now on I'm going to try to research home remedies before turning to a doctor. We don't typically go to them anyway unless it's a major problem - and for checkups. I'd rather keep my money in my pocket and use a cure that will actually work.