Earaches - Crunchy Christian Mommas KNOW What to Do!

Learn all about earaches and how to get the support you need. 

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Transcript

Melissa Crenshaw  0:00  
Hey everyone, welcome to today's episode! We are back with another episode of Crunchy Christian Mommas and we have Donna with us again. Donna has been with me before, so I won't go into great detail about her. You know her history, but she has been using homeopathy for several years, and she has led a Gateway class before. If you haven't taken a Gateway to Homeopathy class,  I highly encourage you to look on my website get signed up. Bri and I teach this class together and would love to have you join us. We've been doing this for two years. It's a great foundation. Donna's going to speak a little bit about how that helped her. What I see is that people can get started using remedies and using homeopathy near the beginning of taking the first Gateway class. It's really, really useful. Welcome, Donna, today you're going to tell us about your daughter's earache, is that right?

Donna  1:19  
Yes, that's correct.

Go right ahead and jump in!

Unknown Speaker  1:26  
Well, just to preface this - this happened shortly after I completed my first Gateway One class. A lot of the ladies in the class had decided we wanted to keep in touch with each other to bounce things off of each other when issues arise, so we created our own little offline group where we used signal, which was a great app to use for us to keep in touch with each other. Shortly after going through my Gateway One class, my daughter had her first ever ear infection. This was not something I thought that I would be treating with homeopathy, ever. A lot of times when we hear about earaches, it can get a little scary, and it was scary for me. I honestly was very hesitant to treat this just using homeopathy. The first day, it was pretty mild - she had had very mild, I wouldn't even call it an ear ache, just some ear issues every now and then, particularly after swimming. This was one of those times that water had gotten down in her ear, and it was just really bothering her. We were treating it not aggressively at all, just doing the peroxide or using a hairdryer to make sure her ear canal had gotten the moisture out. She woke up one morning, and she said her ear was hurting more than it ever had before, so I consulted my Materia Medica and my notes that I had taken in the Gateway One class. I believe we do go over earaches if I remember correctly - it was otitis media. I gave her the first line remedy for that. I'm referencing my notes, too, because this was several years ago.

Melissa Crenshaw  3:53  
Of course, yes. I still reference my notes too, so go right ahead.

Donna  4:00  
This also attests to taking good notes as well, because when things progress quickly over the course of just a couple of hours, I was starting to get a little anxious, and thinking straight can get kind of hard. I'm glad I wrote everything down as it was happening. The morning she woke up with her earache, I was giving her the first line remedy every 30 minutes for the first hour and a half, and then I backed off. I was still not sure at the time how frequently I should be giving a remedy, even though it was an acute situation. I've learned a lot since then in the past few years, but this was my first time with a really big acute situation that we had to handle. I did try another one where she said it's just still hurting and it's not getting any better, so I switched up. I did do the four dose rule. I did four doses of that one, and she wasn't getting any better, so I tried something different. One thing that she said did make her feel a little better was Belladonna, so I stuck with that one. However, by the evening, her other ear was hurting. I just wasn't sure what to do. At that point, she went to bed - she did go to sleep, which was good. She woke up in the middle of the night with them both hurting. This was another time at which I was just not really sure of myself. I should have stuck with the one that when I gave it to her, she said she felt a little better, but I didn't. I went back to the first one. I think I was just really over anxious about what I was doing. She went back to sleep after I gave her the first one, and when she woke up about three or so hours later, it was hurting again, so I gave it to her again. She did get back to sleep again, which I know is a good sign, so that's why I was sticking with that one and praying that it was the right one. She was kind of going up and down - she would take it, feel better, get some rest, then wake up a little bit later with it hurting again. So, in my new-to-homeopathy mind, I'm like, "Oh, this is just not working. I keep giving it to her and she gets a little better, but then it hurts again," not realizing that yeah, it is working. You just have to keep giving it as the symptoms come back, but in my mind at the time, I was thinking that it was just not working. It's not working. I'm talking with my husband who said we should just go to the doctor, and I said, "Okay, I'll make an appointment." 

I made a call to the doctor and decided to go ahead and get her an appointment with the ENT and have it checked out. We got there, he looked in her ears, and he said she's got an infection in both ears. He put a piece of cotton in her ear, and he started to put something in. I said, "Whoa, what are you putting in?" And he says, "Well, she needs antibiotics right now. Her ear canal is so swollen, that if I don't put these in, she's gonna be in big trouble." And I went into mom panic mode. I said, "Well, hold on!" I really wanted to avoid antibiotics. She's never had oral antibiotics in her life. She did have a few antibiotic drops in those ears several years prior, but I didn't want to keep going down that road, you know? So he said, "Well, if I don't do this, it's gonna spread to her mastoid and she's gonna be in big trouble." This was a Friday afternoon. I'm in his office on a Friday afternoon at 3:30, and he's getting ready to put antibiotics in her ear canals. And I said, "Okay, how about this? Can you write me a prescription? I want to try homeopathy first, and if it doesn't go well, I'll have the prescription in case I need it." He goes, "I'll tell you right now, you're gonna be at the ER tomorrow and I'm not going to be here." 

Melissa Crenshaw  9:31  
Gosh! That's ugly. I wouldn't go back to him!

Donna  9:33  
Yeah, we're not! My daughter was old enough to catch his attitude. She saw how his demeanor was, and when we walked out and she goes, "Mom, I don't care how bad it hurts. Do not take me to him ever again." I said, "Don't worry, we're not." So, we got the prescription drops just in case, and we went home. This is where my Gateway One ladies really helped me out. I started asking questions and I got immediate responses. It just so happened that the the person that led our Gateway One class was on there as well. She's led Gateway One many, many times. You would know her voice if you heard it. But she was on, and her daughter was going through the exact same thing. She said, "Oh my goodness, my daughter is going through it as well. Here's what we're doing." And I gave her a little more details on the pain - which side had more pain than the other, and the situations around her specific ear issues. She said, "Okay, well, I tried this for four doses, and it didn't work for us but it might work for her. Try this." Then, she recommended I start alternating some remedies just to really help with the pain because by then, that was the biggest issue. I know when you have an earache, and it kind of feels like somebody's stabbing you in your ear, just how uncomfortable and dreadful that is. I had lots of earaches when I was growing up. I had lots of antibiotics when I was growing up, and I didn't want my daughter going down that same path. We did start alternating several things. We alternated Belladonna 200, Chamomilla 200, Pulsatilla 30, and then back to the Hepar Sulph 200. 

Melissa Crenshaw  12:15  
Nice.

Donna  12:19  
I would have been very, very hesitant to have those four alternating being new to it, but I was talking to someone who really knew what she was doing and was giving really good advice. Some of the other ladies chimed in as well that had experience with treating their children's ear infections. I know for a lot of people ear infection is just a very, very common childhood situation to go through. For us, I'm very thankful that we never went through this when she was younger. But here we are, I was going through it and I didn't have any experience and didn't know what to do. Again, I was just very anxious over the whole thing. My husband went and got the prescription filled, but as we started alternating those, her pain level started going down and down. Let me back up for a second - that morning, I asked her to rate her pain and she gave me a 9.5 out of 10 Wow. It kept going down and down, and at nine o'clock that night, she said she was feeling okay. She slept through the night. I didn't write down that I had to give her anything in the middle of the night. The next morning, we did a couple of remedies as soon as she woke up. I have written down that at 10:30 in the morning, she was down to a five for her pain level.

Melissa Crenshaw  14:17  
Nice!

Donna  14:18  
We just kept on it throughout the day. I backed off some of them, but I kept up with the Hepar sulph and the Belladonna. I know Hepar sulph is one of the main ones.

Yeah, for infection.

That night, I think she was down to a pain level of about a four. The next morning, she was much better. So, it was really bad one day and that night. As we kept administering the remedies, the pain just kept going down. I did a couple of other things as well - massaging the sides of her neck where her ear canals are, putting the warm compress on. She was better for warmth, so that should have clued me in. There a lot of things looking back that now I see. When I was in the middle of it, though, it was hard. It was my first time with a real, big issue to deal with. There were things that I missed, but I'm glad that I write everything down, and just super thankful, like I said, that I had the ladies that had been through ear infections with their children to offer suggestions.

Melissa Crenshaw  14:48  
As many years experiences as I have, when you yourself, or one of your children, or your very close family members are in pain or have a condition that's acute and kind of urgent, it's hard to think in the moment. We all need our lady friends to come alongside us and help us - you need a group of friends to to help you and to bounce things off of. I have my people, too! I have a select few that I'll check in with when I'm dealing with something say who've just helped me and I don't have any fear of judgment about the fact that I've been doing this more than 20 years. I do know what to do when I'm helping somebody else, but when it's me or my family, it's hard because it's hard to be objective for yourself. 

I often tell this little story in my first Gateway class when we start talking about this very thing. When I was a lactation consultant in the hospital, I saw this very often - on the day that a mama is leaving the hospital, I need to know if their milk is coming in. If it is, then I'm going to send you home with one plan. If it's not, I'm sending you home with a different plan. Often, I would go in to the room and ask, do you feel like your milk is coming in? I would get this blank stare, and I would say, "Well, are your breast feeling heavier or fuller today?" They wouldn't know and would look at their husband, and he would often be able to tell me. Sometimes it was funny for him that he was talking about this, but most men were like, whatever. The point is that often we need somebody else to be objective, especially right after you've had a baby - your hormones are going crazy, you're sleepless, you're worried about your baby getting enough milk, your nipples are probably sore because that's what happens in the beginning. When you have all the external factors, it's hard to think in a moment, so we need our own people to rely on and call on. I have a very large Gateway Facebook group for people who have gone through my Gateway classes, and when people post questions in there, they get answers. We've really encouraged each other! People post their testimonies in there about beautiful things that have worked, and we just love on each other in that group. I'm so glad you have a group like that and so thankful that you didn't end up in the emergency room with antibiotics and all the things - that you did use your discernment. 

That was the other thing I really want to point out to people - you have to have discernment. If you're brand new to this, and you're not sure what to do or you feel like this is too overwhelming and you can't do it, get some help from some of your friends. Also, it's okay if you need to, like Donna, have the antibiotic in hand just in case. Don't beat yourself up if you give the antibiotic or if you give in and give the ibuprofen or the Tylenol, please don't beat yourself up. This is a process, and I see that often. I see a lot of women really beating themselves up that they gave the medicine, and I just want to encourage you right now if you're listening to this or watching this video, that you not do that to yourself. This is a process. When I first started out, I kept all of my medicines. I didn't have many - I had ibuprofen and Tylenol in the cabinet. I kept them there until they expired and then once they expired, meaning I had not used them then at least In a year or maybe two, then I knew I was okay. I didn't need them anymore. I was using homeopathy only, threw them out and I never bought anymore. It's been maybe 18 years or something. I am so glad that you shared this story. I know it's going to encourage people in many different ways, not just how to take care of an infection. I hope that if you didn't, you'll go back and listen or watch this again and write down what Donna did, because that could work for your child. I'm also going to talk about other remedies that I'll go through now.

Remedies for ear infections and/or earaches: Chamomilla and Pulsatilla generally are the top two remedies for earaches. The difference between the two is the temperament. Robin Murphy is who I learned from, and he is the one that said, "You want to hug a Pulsatilla; you want to spank a Chamomilla." The Pulsatilla temperament is when she's got the puppy dog eyes, she's so pitiful, and she wants you to hold her. If she sits beside you or you hold her, she literally feels better. She's crying and she's weepy, and you just feel so sorry for her. The Chamomilla temperament is angry and mad - maybe screaming and crying, but they are mad. You're like, "I don't know if I can deal with you!" It's hard. It's just two different temperaments. Those are the top two earache remedies. 

The basic causes for earaches are weather changes, where the cold settles in the nose and metastasizes to the ear. Also, milk is a major cause, especially our junky milk that most people buy from the store. Kids with allergies can have lots of ear infections. When the Chamomilla, Pulsatilla and Belladonna work really well for your children, but the earaches keep coming back, then you're going to consider Calcarea carbonica 30c once a day, or Silica aka Silicea to 12c or 12x. 12c and 12x are not interchangeable by the way, so I don't mean for it to sound that way, but you'll consider Silica, likely a 12x but you could do a 12c, once a day once or twice a day. That would be long term to uproot the tendency to get earaches. 

A severe earache, like what your daughter was going through, may need two or three different remedies, just like what you did. This is an example of how it might go - you might do Chamomilla, then Merc Viv, then Pulsatilla, back to Merc Viv, kind of in the same way that you did your remedies. I want to encourage you, Donna, but also everybody listening or watching - it's not that what I just said is better than what Donna said. Anytime something's working. you go back to that. So, next time there's an earache, go back to what worked before. It doesn't matter who said it. It doesn't matter if you made it up yourself. It doesn't matter where it came from. If it worked, you need to stick with it. I want to give you some keynotes about the Chamomilla earache. If you choose Chamomilla, you might give it first because it's great for earaches, especially for ears that are bothered by flying in an airplane. If you have a person in your family that has trouble flying in airplanes and they get ear symptoms, then give Chamomilla. Chamomilla has severe pain in the ear. This is big, sharp, stabbing pains in the ear. The child might be screaming, mad, biting, the ears sensitive to the touch. They might have a fever. They're hard to console. They're fussy, irritable. fractious, moody, hypersensitive to touch, one cheek might be red in the Chamomilla earache. They want to be left alone. This earache is worse from 9pm to midnight and worse for wind, so they want to cover their ear - they don't want the wind to come in. 

I have a quick Chamomilla story in my own family. My oldest son used to get earaches all the time as an infant and toddler, and then we started using homeopathy. When he was about 12, he got a terrible earache. He hadn't had one in years and years, but he got this terrible earache. He was rolling around, screaming, crying, he was really mad, angry, irritable, and he was in so much pain. I gave him Chamomilla, and he went to sleep. When he woke up after one dose, all pain was gone. Done. I did Chamomilla 200 that time. Everything was done. But remember, we had been using homeopathy at that point for years. I have live calls with my mentorship groups, and what I've talked about in there is that that the longer you use homeopathy, the faster it works - it works better and better with time. So if you're new to it, and you're feeling like nothing works for me right now, hang in there! Keep going. 

Donna  26:49  
I found that to be true now, over the past few years, that it is seeming to work quicker. I've thought, "Is this just me or am I getting a quicker response than what I used to?" I used to be in the camp of, hold out until you absolutely had to take something, but it was allopathic medicine. I had to let go of that when when switching over to homeopathy.

Melissa Crenshaw  27:19  
Exactly! I was just recently encouraging, I think also my mentorship program, but maybe in a podcast or something, that same thing. Growing up in allopathy, we want to hold out until we absolutely have to have that medication. We don't do that in homeopathy. Start using the remedy right away. Just do it. It's not the same - you're not gonna hurt anything. 

The Pulsatilla earache wants company. Again, that's this temperament. She wants to be consoled. She wants to sleep with you. She's weeping, needy, she's got those puppy dog eyes that just bring out the pity in the mother. She wants attention, she wants to be held, and actually holding and comforting her helps her to literally, physically feel better. Like I already said, this is worse around Twilight, which is right after sunset and right before dark. Everything about Pulsatilla is changeable, so any condition that you're dealing with with Pulsatilla changes. That can be true with this Pulsatilla earache  - it might go from ear to ear. It can kind of go back and forth or move from one to the other.

Belladonna is also a huge one for earaches. The Belladonna earache has a sudden onset and a high fever. That whole side of the face that the ear hurts might be red. The ear canal is fire engine red and inflamed. This is often a right sided earache, but not always. The pupils might be dilated, the face is flushed. They're hypersensitive, glassy eyes, and feels as if all the blood has rushed from the body to the ear. Belladonna is a throbbing pain. No matter which body part you're looking at, the throbbing pain screams Belladonna. 

Mercurius/Merc Sol is interchangeable with Merc Viv. If you have a protocol or you have one of those, use whichever one you have - they're absolutely interchangeable. Merc sol and Merc viv have the chronic ear infections, especially due to intervention with antibiotics. So, like my oldest son, if we were using homeopathy back then, he would have likely needed Mercurius to uproot his ear infections because he had he had chronic ear infections, and he was constantly being treated with antibiotics. I'm going to just say Mercurius from now on, and it covers Merc Sol and Merc Viv. Mercurius is number one for swimmers ear. If you've been in the water and you get an earache, look at Mercurius first. Mercurius may have a yellow-green discharge, fever, chills, sweat, excess saliva, boils in the ear, suppuration coming out, stinging and tearing pains, night sweats, goosebumps, no relief after sweating. You know how sometimes you can feel better after you sweat? Mercurius doesn't. Mercurius is number one for sore throat. I love Mercurius for sore throat.

Hepar sulph is also a big one. When Chamomilla doesn't work, you might think of Hepar sulph next. Hepar sulph has the suppurations and is great if you've had a ruptured eardrum, which is very, very painful. The Hepar sulph pain is worse than Chamomilla, so this is very severe pain. The ear is more sensitive than Chamomilla and irritable, more focused violence. "Chamomilla on steroids' is what you can think of. This person won't let anybody come near them, you cannot look in that ear, they're not going to let you, and there may be scar tissue. If there had been a ruptured eardrum, then scar tissue can cause a loss of hearing. In that case, you can use a low potency of Thiosinaminum. Those are number one remedies for earaches and ear infections. Donna, it sounds like you used Chamomilla, Pulsatilla, and Hepar sulph. Was there one more in there?

Donna  32:32  
Belladonna.

Melissa Crenshaw  32:33  
Belladonna, yes. What a great combination! So, you wrote that down, and if it ever happens again, you're going to use it again. If your child has chronic ear infections, you're going to think of Calc Carb or Silica, and try that. When I say try that, we're not trying that for a few weeks or a few months; think of six to 12 months of use. Use it until you've gone through the next season where they normally would get ear infections and you've gotten through it without one. You can stop it then. I am so glad, Donna, that you could join me today and tell your story on how you did it and how you got support. That support is so important. Again, join me and Bri in Gateway class. After Gateway One and Gateway Two, I highly encourage you to do the mentorship program, which will just take you deeper into case taking a case management. I have other courses in my homeopathy school, and you can see my linktree all my things that I have going on in the show notes. Also, I'm working on a Pregnancy, Labor, and Delivery class, so that'll be next when I find time to finish it. Thank you all for listening. Thank you for watching. Thank you, Donna, for being with us and sharing your story. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day.

Donna  34:37  
Thanks, Melissa.