Ear infections are the second most common sickness in children. As a parent, you want your children?s pain to go away as quickly as possible. But before going straight for the antibiotics, you may want to try some home remedies. Natural treatments for ear infections have been proven to help ear infections in both children and adults. While natural remedies may seem like the better option, it is important to visit the doctor if the ear pain hasn?t gone away after a few days.

Causes and Symptoms

Ear infections occur because of bacterial infections. The infection can either travel to your ears through your eustachian tubes, causing them to swell and trap fluid, or infect your ears when the outer ear is damaged.

Besides ear pain or discomfort, other symptoms of an ear infection may include:

• Dizziness
• Nausea
• Fever
• Headache
• Difficulty sleeping
• Fluid draining from the ears
• Swollen or red ears

Ear infections may have an underlying cause so it?s important to seek medical care at the doctor?s office or an urgent care clinic, especially if you are experiencing any sort of hearing loss.

Home Remedies

Not all earaches are ear infections and some ear infections will go away after a few days, so before going to the doctor, you might want to try some home remedies like these:

• Decongestants to help drain the fluid from your ears
• Putting a warm or cold compress on your ears
• Using a nasal spray: after using the nasal spray, lay on your back for a few minutes to allow the fluids to travel to your eustachian tubes
• Putting a few drops of warm onion juice, garlic juice, basil juice, or olive oil in your ears will help reduce pain and infection
• Apple cider vinegar helps get rid of fungus
• Putting drops of hydrogen peroxide in your ears

If you go to the doctor or an urgent care clinic, you will most likely be prescribed antibiotics to fight the bacteria in your ears.

Preventing Ear Infections

While most people consider colds and other upper respiratory infections to be the main cause of ear infections, allergies can also cause ear infections. It?s important to keep up with any allergy medications you take. It?s also very important to keep your ears clean and free of water. If you?re in water frequently, take extra precautions to ensure no water gets trapped in your ears. References. Check out this website for more.