One evening a few weeks ago while vacationing in Texas, one of my girls awoke in tears with a painful earache. My children were doing a whole lot of swimming each day so I knew what was wrong: Swimmer’s Ear.
What is Swimmer’s Ear?
Swimmer’s Ear is when water remains in the ears after swimming. This water can breed bacteria and cause an ear infection. Symptoms can be redness or itching inside the ear, pain, and/or drainage of ear fluid. Most of the time this infection is encouraged by a lack of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and/or essential fatty acids. If you are dealing with Swimmer’s Ear, be sure to consume supplements and foods that are high in nutrition.
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How Did I Treat My Daughter’s Swimmer’s Ear?
I placed one drop of colloidal silver in her ear and had her lay on her side for about 5 minutes to make sure the silver didn’t immediately drain out. Colloidal silver kills infections and is what I normally use for ear infections. It’s good to always treat both ears even if one ear is not painful and doesn’t seem to be infected. Infections can pass from ear to ear so it’s wise to treat both at the same time.
If the person is suffering from actual ear pain and not just an infection, there are some remedies that will ease the pain and suffering. Colloidal silver will kill the infection which will eventually take away the ear pain, however it will not normally take away the ear pain right away.
The way I normally treat ear pain is to cut an onion in half and place the cut side against the ear. I hold it there all night or day if necessary. This has helped more than once in taking away an ear ache. Onion also helps pull out infection!
Unfortunately I didn’t have any onion with me in the hotel room {this is probably something I will add to my home remedy list when vacationing} and I certainly didn’t wish to attempt finding a Wal-Mart in the middle of the night if I could help it. Thankfully I used something that worked effectively!
I brought raw apple cider vinegar with me on the trip to make my homemade vinaigrette dressing so we could eat our daily platefuls of salad. Raw apple cider vinegar is used for several other ailments so I thought I’d give it a try for ear pain! I heated a small amount of the vinegar on the stove to very warm – make sure it doesn’t boil- but just very warm to the touch. I soaked a rag in the warm vinegar and applied it to her ear. Within less than 5 minutes her pain was completely gone and she was able to sleep the rest of the night. I was thankful and impressed that vinegar came to our rescue!
Now Let’s Talk About How To Prevent Swimmer’s Ear
One easy way to help prevent Swimmer’s Ear is to keep the ears cleaned out on a regular basis. If you have a tendacy to get these infections from having your ears in the water, you can try this solution: mix equal parts of white vinegar and rubbing alcohol. Place one or two drops of the mixture in each ear immediately after swimming.
Other Remedies For Swimmer’s Ear
Hydrogen Peroxide
Peroxide is a natural antibacterial substance. Place a few drops in each ear and allow the peroxide to kill the infection. Lay on your side for 5 minutes each ear to keep it from running out.
White Vinegar and Rubbing Alcohol
As mentioned above as a preventative for Swimmer’s Ear, mixing equal parts of vinegar and rubbing alcohol and placing in the ears can effectively kill ear infections.
Have you ever dealt with Swimmer’s Ear? How did you effectively treat it?
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My son developed swimmer’s ear after a traditional ear infection. It took me months to figure out what the problem was, but per the chiropractor’s suggestion (who confirmed his eardrum was intact), we filled a bottle with 50/50 water and peroxide and squirted that in his ears. We were doing other things like washing with ACV and applying tto and lavender oil just outside his ear, but that water/peroxide knocked it out quickly.
Thanks for the great advice, Virginia!
Can I use apple cider vinegar and alcohol instead of white vinegar to prevent swimmer’s ear?
I have read that you can, Francine!