Ear Infections
 

My 7 month old has one. We went to the E.R. at 3:30 am the other night because she was howling with pain. But she's on the antiobiotics and pain killers now.

Question: is there something about the middle of the night that bothers a kid with an ear infection? She gets through the day as if she's fine, naps no problem, shows no signs of discomfort. But between 11pm and 6am it's as if she isn't on meds at all. This, of course, is when I should be sleeping. Is this just God punishing me somehow ( :rolleyes: ) or is there some medical reason for overnight discomfort?

Laying down. I had ear infections until the 4th grade and lying down creates a lot of pressure and the fluid doesn't drain down the throat naturally-mine actually drained out my ears in my sleep-well, in my attempts to sleep.
Because I was about 9 when they stopped, I always have those memories of lying in bed, writhing and crying; my ear drums are permanently scarred.
You could try this: under her crib mattress, use something to prop up one end so she sleeps with her head slightly elevated. My daughter didn't get ear infections, but she did get colds and such and propping the mattress allowed for better 'drainage'-I have even had her in her crib in her carryseat so she'd sleep more or less in a sitting position-just be sure she's strapped in properly.

Croup is worse at night too. I think ng hit the nail on the head. I had tubes put in my right ear twice as a kid. Good times :|

I was going to suggest what ngdawg suggested. Prop up the mattress by her head. In fact, with my son and his allergies, we keep his mattress propped all the time. I used a pillow at first, but that squished. They actually sell a wedge, it looks like a small piece of a mattress. That is what we use now, in his toddler bed. It looks like this:

Crib Wedge

Side note:
the propping the mattress up also helps cut down on snoring for adults who saw wood all thru the night...

I used to get ear infections as a kid - eventually we just started putting me up on two pillows so I'd stay pretty well inclined. Then we put small blocks under the feet located at the head of the bed. That worked pretty well.

Luckily, my kids don't get these...yet (knocks on wood).

cool. I actually pulled the wedge out recently because I thought she wasn't sleeping well with it (rolling around a lot and ending up laying sideways in the crib instead of lengthwise). We'll see if that helps.

The question that doesn't answer, however, is why she has no ear pain at all when napping in the same crib during the day...

Maybe because her naps are shorter. Maybe the pressure does not bother her until she is lying down for a longer time.

I really hope she feels better quickly. :icare:

My kids did that well until they were 4 or5-never ended up the same way we tucked them in.
Threadjack: we had bunk beds and son slept on top. the ladder down was at the foot of the bed and he had that more or less memorized. one night, in an attempt to go to the bathroom, he did the automatic move to get out of bed and landed on the floor-he had turned in his sleep to be across the bed and didn't know....when he went for the ladder, it wasn't there.

They don't know they're supposed to stay put, but eventually they do. In the meantime, they will turn and twist and end up on all ends and corners.

But when it bothers her at night is as I'm putting her down, not further into sleep. I was up and hour and a half last night because no matter how deeply I got her to sleep in my arms, she started screaming in pain the moment I laid her down. She doesn't do that during the day at all.

You know, there's this huge source of information... ear infections worse at night - Google Search. ;)

According to Why does my child always seem to get sick at night? - DrGreene.com, thehy mention that "...our bodies are on a 24 hour clock called the Circadian Rhythm. Hormone levels rise and fall according to this daily cycle. Some hormones help us to wake up in the morning, others help us to sleep at night. These same hormones affect how we feel pain. During the day high levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, keep us from feeling some of the pain and keep our fevers in check. At night our fevers rise and our discomfort increases. As if this weren't enough, throughout the day our senses are barraged by gigabytes of stimuli every second, and our brains are busy processing all the data. At night the amount of stimuli we are bombarded with is drastically reduced. This gives our brains an opportunity to pay more attention to this already increased level of pain. These factors combine to greatly amplify symptoms at night. Feeling better in the morning doesn't mean that you are better.[/quote]
Pretty cool.

That is very interesting and makes alot of sense, Redlemon. Thank you for the info. Mine was just a guess.

It can also help with chronic acid reflux.

How do you put her down during the day? Do you hold her til she falls asleep or does she fall asleep by herself or when she's just tired? If you're putting her down awake for naps, but not at night, there's your problem.
Even not in pain, she'd cry if she fell asleep in your arms, then you lay her in the crib-it's the moving and waking, the not being held, etc. Maybe get her to NOT fall asleep in your arms, but instead build a bedtime routine that is different than the naptime one.

I put the wedge in and she slept all night! Bless you all!

I agree with this completely - we *never* (ok, almost never) put our son to sleep in our arms - put him in bed awake, read him a story, kiss goodnight and leave the room/close the door. The only difference with his middle of the day sleep is no story for middle of the day sleep.

The times he wakes in the night, picking him up is the last resort - give him his pacifer and comfort him. If he continues to cry for a long period then it escalates to being picked up etc.

I also agree with the moving around - they just don't figure out they should stay in one place - which is why babies and toddlers sleep in a cage :) and you have to dress them a lot more carefully, because you know the blankets really are "cot dressing"