Ok, having told the umpteenth doctor that none of my boys read the book on classic signs of an ear infection and hence do NOT pull on their ears, etc. I got yet another look like I wear a toaster oven on my head. So, my question to you all is:

Do YOUR kids show the "classic" signs of an ear infection? Or are my kids just mutants?!

Catherine never shows any "classic" signs. I take her in for a sky-rocketing fever and lo and behold, there's an ear infection.

Trey never had any symptoms either. I'd always take him in for something else and find out his ear drums were about to blow.

Andrew has only had a few DEI's and he was sick at the same time with other symptoms. I take him in and he is usually diagnosed with Bronchitis, Double EI and pharyngitis:(

Atleast that has been how it pans out each time...showing nothing regarding tugging at ears

Cady's very rarely had classic ear infection symptoms. Never any fevers, no ear pulling or anything like that. I have always taken her to the doctor after weeks-long colds, thinking it's a sinus infection or something, because all she gets is mucousy and crabby. So, the ear infections are found when I take her in thinking it's something else.

What are you going on classic symptoms? NIght waking and screaming- is this calssic? He never pulls at his ears.

No, the night waking and screaming can apply to several things actually. What is irking me is the doctors telling me that ALL kids pull, tug, or whack at their ears when they have an ear infection. Apparently my kids share this common trait of NOT doing the above with other kids after all.:wink:

Daniel never pulls on his ears or has a fever. He just has a cold and seems unhappy -- eventually I take him to the ped and we discover the ear infection.

Here is our scenario. Abby just gets down right mean. She gets really rowdy and sassy (more that usual, lol) I mean, she is MEAN. Then I wait to see if she wakes during the night and comes to our room. If she does this following and exceptionally mean, hyper/rowdy day, then I KNOW she has an EI. It never fails. Abby does this same rowdiness before most infections, but the night awakening is restricted to EI for some reason. Weird, huh?

Shae has never done that stuff either. With one of her most recent ear infections she told me her ear hurt one afternoon but then didn't complain about it again, until she was in school, the sound of the loud buzzer in the morning hurt it some, but then she was fine again. This last one she had the doctor asked her if her ear hurt and she said no. He said, that's weird b/c it really should, it's quite infected...I'd say maybe she's used to it or something??? I don't know.

When she was younger, I would always be able to tell b/c she'd be barfing every 10 minutes like clockwork. That was her symptom and her only symptom.

Thankfully, Zac has never had an ear infection (to our knowledge). He's actually gone through "ear pulling" days. I did take him in for that and he was fine. We assume he was just "playing w/his ears."

Well, this is making me feel better. Any of my friends I ask have the "classic symptoms" of ear pulling, etc so I was begining to wonder about my kids. I bought an otoscope and have found many infections that way but it is missing right now (kids probably took it to the basement even though they know it is a no-no!)

Anyway, Iain has a chest, ear, and throat infection right now and I told the doctor about the chest and throat and did not know about the ear. It was just THAT look again which said basically I do not watch my kid or something to notice the ear pulling, etc. when in actual fact he does NOT do that, nor did my other boys. Gee whiz, I had told him about the other two problems! lol

The way I know is if Zoee is more whiny and moody. Also if she is getting up in the middle of the night, screaming and not wanting to go back to sleep after couple of nights like this, I go and get it check and it usually is an EI. But since the tubes have been in, no EI!

Well I think Roni is right, our kids are used to so much pain, where a usual kid would complain and pull at their ear ours doesn't notice it till it hurts too much!

Parkers only symptom is bad behaviour and unusual night waking.

On the other hand Cooper has only had one ear infection and it was before I knew there were signs and all I reamember was he all of a sudden changed and become very angry and naughty, I took him to the Dr and he said he was fine and three days later his ear drum burst- he has been on probiotics since and he has yet to have another one!

Leigh,
The doc's are full of it. LOt's of children show no signs at all!!
Have them read these articles

http://www.drgreene.com/21_774.html

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/8/t081600.asp

I can find a million more if you want LOL


I had ear infections from the time I was born till age 8 and my Mom didn't know that I had half of them. In fact I didn't even get a fever with a majority of them.

I think children do "get used to it" I know I did.
When I stopped having them so chronically and I got one after a couple of years without, I was in extreme pain. I couldn't even talk. Tears just poured out of my eyes uncontrollably and when I got checked it wasn't even that bad of an infection. Not even close to the bad ones I had before that bursted my ear drums. I think for some kids it just goes beyond pain and it doesn't hurt. I remember how I felt. I had a pounding in my ears and I couldn't hear well at all. I felt clogged, weird (like I was in a tunnel), and tired. but I didn't hurt.

And NEVER once did I tug or pull on my ears!

Well anyway,
That's my 2 cents

Noah has had two ear infections, and with both, he didn't even have a fever! He ended up getting a fever a few days after each diagnosis, but I took him to the doctor for excessive crying. He *was* old enough to exhibit these symptoms, but he just screamed like h*ll instead.

Very interesting poll, Leigh. Noah digs in his ears when he's tired every day, and I have so many people ask if his ears hurt, lol. But, he never does it when they really do!

Trey never had any symptoms either. I'd always take him in for something else and find out his ear drums were about to blow.

Ditto for Sam!!!

I must have the odd ball babies then...cuz I couldn't even vote in the poll. Neither baby has ever had an ear infection...so far. The strange thing is I had one every 2 weeks until I turned one and got tubes...so I expected this to be a problem area for my kids.

My oldest did show the classic signs, my middle son never had any ear infections and the youngest showed no signs when he had one...only when he didn't.:rolleyes:

None of my kids have ever showed classic signs of an ear infection.

Jayden does the ear pulling, whacking at the side of his head and ears are red. The Dr says no infection but fluid build up.

On the other hand Cooper has only had one ear infection and it was before I knew there were signs and all I reamember was he all of a sudden changed and become very angry and naughty, I took him to the Dr and he said he was fine and three days later his ear drum burst- he has been on probiotics since and he has yet to have another one!

Well now I jinxed it! We took Cooper off the probiotics 6 weeks ago cause it contained dairy and I took it away from parker, so we didn't get it. Lo and Behold double perforated ear drum!

No signs whatsoever, no pulling, crying, bad behaviour. He didn't even complain about it.

He just had a high temp that came on today.

We are getting back on the probiotics ASAP!

Bothe Stephen and Matthew have just been diagnosed with an ear infection each (opposite ears too LOL!!). They displayed none of the symptoms.. and I was a little embarassed I hadn't picked it up... although they were both suffering dreadfully from colds. It was only AFTER they started ABs that Stephen started holding his ear and it became bright red :roll:

Sarah, i can't even imagine how hard it is to deal with two sick little ones. I hope that they are feeling a lot better soon. I suppose we shouldn't kick ourselves so much, we do a great job, we aren't Drs!