Double Ear Infection

Poor Sweet Pea just got over her pink eye and now has an ear infection...a double one (both ears) at that!

She has had a cough for a little over a month now. We asked the doctor about it at her 9-month well check and after Doc listened to her chest, said she sounded perfectly fine. No wheezing, no crackling, nothing. She said it was likely drainage that was causing the cough and recommended that we get a humidifier for her room. We've been using the humidifier since then but the cough wasn't getting any better. Then, last week, around the time she had pink eye, she started having these coughing fits at night that would wake her up so I scheduled an appointment to bring her in on Thursday.

Sweet Pea didn't have a fever and was drinking all her bottles like normal, but she would only take a couple of bites out of her solids and then would refuse everything else. (She lets you know she's refusing the food by sticking out her tongue then blowing raspberries! Needless to say, she makes a MESS!) We figured she wasn't eating because of the new teeth that are coming in. She wasn't acting fussy at all, and anyone who wasn't around her a lot wouldn't notice a difference, but Ms. Sharon at daycare said you could tell she wasn't feeling well from her face. She said it seemed like she was tired all day long.

At the doctor's visit they weighed her and took her temperature. She weighed 19 pounds 9.1 ounces, but that was with clothes on. And her temperature was at 98.3 F, so it was normal.

When the doctor came in to see her, Sweet Pea was all smiley and bouncing up and down in my arms. Doc asked how we were doing and what was going on with Cassidy. I told her we were there because of the cough that she's had for awhile now and how recently she'd been waking up at night with coughing fits. Once again, Doc listened to her chest and same thing...no wheezing, crackling, nothing. Doc then goes to check her left ear and is surprised to find out that she has an ear infection. She actually said: "she has an ear infection, mama. I'm surprised. I wouldn't have expected it from her the way she's acting right now" Then she goes to check her right ear and is equally surprised that she has an ear infection in that ear also. I'm sure she checked other things too, but all I really remember are the chest and the ears.

As far as Sweet Pea's cough goes, she still felt that it was due to drainage. But as a precaution, Doc also had them do a nasal swab to send off to check for pertussis (whooping cough). Cassidy's already been vaccinated for it, and Doc says it's unlikely that a vaccinated child will get pertussis but she wants to be safe because there have been reported cases of pertussis in the area.

Doc prescribed 10 days of Amoxicillin twice a day for the ear infection and requested that we come back for a follow-up visit since she wasn't symptomatic (no fever, no fussiness, drinking her bottles fine, etc.) just to make sure that the ear infection had cleared up. So Sweet Pea's appointment is scheduled for next Monday.

Today, however, when I went to pick her up, she was acting a little fussy. She wouldn't let me put her down so I could put her bottles up in the diaper bag and she didn't want me to let her go when I was about to put her in her car seat. She also felt really warm. I'm wondering now if she'd been fussy the entire time at daycare. She isn't normally but the two teachers this afternoon weren't her normal teachers so if she was fussy, they probably figured that's just how she was. I'll have to ask about that tomorrow.

We have little baby blinds (or whatever you call them) for the rear windows on my truck and they are tinted, but sometimes the sun still manages to find its way in and cast a glare on Sweet Pea's face. Since she was already fussy, I knew the sun would just make matters worse so I hung up a little blanket to cover the window. It worked like a charm! I also kept the truck super-cool the entire way home because I thought maybe she was warm because of the heat and because my truck was a little warm when we got in.

When we got home and I took her out of her carseat she was still warm. (I was freezing!) I took her temperature (under-arm) and it was at 100.8 F. She was still acting a little fussy but every now and then I'd get a smile or a laugh out of her.

Michael had gotten off work and was over by the grocery store picking up his dry cleaning so I asked him to run in and buy another thermometer. I just wanted to make absolutely certain that I was getting the right temperature. When he got home, I took her temperature with the new thermometer but of course had to do it again because the first time I got the reading in Celsius instead of Fahrenheit. Tsk tsk tsk. Her temperature was at 100.4 F.

I called the doctor's office because I was curious whether or not I should give her Tylenol since she's on the Amoxicillin. The nurse called me back and said that they don't really treat fevers unless they're higher than 102 F but that if she was acting like she needed it, that I could give her Tylenol even though she's on the Amoxicillin. She did say that I wanted to make sure and monitor her temperature tomorrow without the Tylenol because if she still has a fever then the Doc will want to see her since it's not typical that a baby will start getting a fever 4 days after being on antibiotics (especially if she never had a fever to begin with).

Cassidy's asleep right now and we didn't give her any Tylenol, but we did give her the Amoxicillin like normal. We'll see tomorrow morning if she's still running a fever. Hopefully she'll be feeling better in the morning!