Massage for ear infection and earache

My son used to have ear infections very frequently before he had his adenoids and tonsils removed. He used to suffer from earaches a lot and we used to help him get better with pain relievers. At that time, we got help from an osteopath but no matter how much he tried ear infection came back. The last ear infection he got was last summer because of diving into the pool too many times. The fluid must have gotten into his middle ear so quickly that he turned from a happy, active child to a poor, miserable kiddo writhing in pain within half an hour.

In all honesty, I thought he was exaggerating at the time. Until I got an ear infection myself a few months later following a sinus infection. The pain in my ear was so excruciating that I, a 38-year-old woman, started to cry in bed. All I could think of was how I really wanted to apologize from my son for thinking he was acting, as soon as I got rid of the pain.

Feeling the fluid moving in my ear was one of the most uncomfortable physical sensations. In addition to the pain of pressure, the muffled hearing was terrible. {Yeas, I was whining worse than a kid} I remembered listening to the pediatrician and the osteopath’s explanation of differences between the anatomy of children’s and adults’ middle and inner ear. The baby and young child’s Eustachian tube would be more horizontal which would cause the ear infection because of lack of easy drainage. Then as kids grow the Eustachian tube would become more slanted and ear infections would become less frequent because of better drainage.

I asked my husband to look up a massage for ear infection in order to drain the fluid from the middle ear and relieve the earache. I was too much in pain to even open my eyes. I was trying every possible home remedy I could think of.

• I put heated towel on my infected ear.
• I propped my head with pillows to keep my ear up.
• I tried to sleep with my infected ear up (on my non-infected ear) because I am a side sleeper. This position helps Eustachian tubes drain.
• I drank as much water as I could so that swallowing would help drain the fluid from my middle ear in a similar way that you would swallow to pop your ears after pressure change.

My husband came back and told me he was going to do massage to help me with the pain. After few strokes, I already started to feel better. After massaging for 5 minutes, the pain was dissipating. After 10 minutes, the pain was totally gone and I was able to fall asleep.

Next day, after I apologized from my son, I got an appointment with an ENT to have my ears checked and get proper medicine for my sinus and ear infection. My middle ear was still filled with fluid. The doctor told me it could take 2-3 weeks for the middle ear to completely drain. I continued to do the massage few times every day to help speed up the lymphatic system get rid of the infection and drain the fluid.

Below is the massage video, that I bookmarked for life.

This is another massage video showing as it is applied to a child. The strokes are similar.

These massage videos will help relieve earache caused by an ear infection.

One final caution! You might see ear drops as natural remedies for ear infections. I urge you not to put in any drops, either store-bought or homemade, in your ear canal while you still have fluid in your middle ear without consulting a professional. It puts a counter pressure on your eardrum which is already being pushed by the fluid in your middle ear. I did it and not only it didn’t help with the ear infection, it made my hearing worse for quite a long time.

(This is for information purposes only. Please consult your own doctor or pharmacist regarding your own health and medication.)