echinacea and ear infection

[sua721]

my 4 year old son has been diagnosed to have otitis media (ear infection) that may lead to serious brain infection if left untreated. he was prescribed antibiotics, to which i totally oppose. a friend recommended echinacea instead. what's the macrobiotic view towards echinacea? what are natural remedies for ear infection, especially for 4 year olds?

[lysia jones]

Personally I hate antibiotics, but I do have kids who had ear infections last year, and used echinacea and olive leaf and astragulus- all of which I am sure helped some but did not prevent or get rid of their infections. Basically they ended up having inner and outer infections and screammed for days and leaked bloody fluid out of their ears. So I went with the antibiotics in the end but could have saved them alot of suffering. I feel herbs are great- totally my preference but if they actually already have the infection I recommend fast cure. Also if you do lay off the herbs to be gentle on the liver while on antibiotics- if you go that route, and suppliment with a good acidofilous. Dont give them dairy and lighten up dramatically on the flour products. Warm salty sweet veggie soup to loosen up the infection as you heal. Heat on the ear itself- warm damp cloth ect. Pusatilla homeopathic, and regular homeo teething tablets. Echinacea takes a while to build up in the system so therefore a good preventative not fot full blown infection. Also colloidal silver but not sure how macros would feel about that. Good luck- dont forget to rub all around ears for good accupressure points if they let you. Love, Lysia

[sua721]

lysia,

thanks so much to your reply. fortunately, my son's ear infection is not that serious - it's not painful and the excretions from his ear is very minimal, he did complain about going 'deaf' for short periods of time. the pediatrician saw a thin film covering his inner ear and wanted it to dry up so that she can have a clear view of the innter ear. she also wanted 'to be on the safe side' so she prescribed antibiotics. my son's on his 6th day on echinacea and my son says that he hasn't gone 'deaf' in a while and his excretions seemed to decrease or stop altogether. there is still this film though in his ear, that i'm hoping will continue to dry up and exit naturally. (because as i understand, echinacea should only be taken 1 week, and not continuously).

i will definitely keep in mind your suggestions, am sure these will come very handy when the time comes. I've also heard of colloidal silver - our water used to be mixed with that - but we stopped taking it. Thanks and be well!!

[sua721]

btw, what do you mean by flour products? here's what we've been having that i think may be considered as flour products - please tell me which ones should we lay off from:
- pasta
- noodles
- kavli crackers (i like them because they're just flour and water and salt)
- rice / oat flour for breading or thickener

[lysia jones]

I think the best now would be whole grains cooked soft. I am glad your son isn't so bad and hope you guys continue healing! Flour is just kind of sticky you know? At least you not as much into wheat. Maybe someone else can respond? Love, Lysia