Ear Infections

So today, after lots of whining and bitching and googling and posting questions all over the internets... I had a epiphany. I'm not even kidding. I think I know what the deal is with Ari's ear infections and so much of what has happened the past year, health and sleep wise.

I learned a little while back that a kid can have a chronic ear infection (or just extra fluid) in the inner ear that can stay around after treatment but not be obvious or visible in a regular exam. It might have other symptoms (like poor sleep!) but not look like an ear infection to a doctor with the little light thingie. When I learned that, I made the appt with the ENT - soonest appt was 3 weeks out. In the mean time, Ari got sick again and got another double ear infection; amoxicillin didn't work so we did the nasty, harsh antibiotic (amox-clav). When he was about half way through the round of amox-clav is when we saw the ENT, and found out for sure his ears were clear (because the ENT has more accurate diagnostic tools, they stuck this little camera/sonogram kinda thingy in his ears).

So this is what I think happened. A year ago right at New Year's, he got a tummy bug and an ear infection. He went from sleeping "through the night" which was 7-9 hour chunks most nights, to waking up hourly because of the ear infection. We treated it with amoxicillin and it was pronounced effective and he supposedly had clear ears at his next doctor's appointment a week or so later (his six month well baby check up). BUT his sleep never went back to normal, at all. I don't think the infection ever really cleared up. He kept getting little colds or whatever bugs every so often - not very often at first, but more and more, until he had four or five ear infections in the past six months. Every time he got an infection we'd treat it with amoxicillin and it would apparently go away: i.e., when the infection was bad he'd wake up every 15-30min in pain, and when it "went away" he'd go back to waking every 30min-2hrs, and whenever the doctor saw him next his ears would appear to be fine.

But then, this last time, the amoxicillin obviously didn't do the trick. After seven days of it, I could just tell it hadn't gone away. I waited a few days and hoped it would clear on its own, since he didn't have fevers or anything. But it didn't and then he got diarrhea, so after two days of that I took him back to the doctor and we got the harsher antibiotic. A few days into that, he was sleeping SO much better and at the ENT's appt, his ears were clear.

And I only just now put it all together: I thought he was just finally sleeping better all on his own this past couple weeks. But now I think it's because his ears have FINALLY stopped hurting!

And I think the reason he kept getting sick more and more often is because he was constantly trying to fight off the infection, so his immune system was weaker, and I also think the antibiotics injured his immune system as well. Even now, he's been sick twice since that last round of antibiotics, and I think his immune system was just weakened BEFORE the antibiotics and that med kicked it while it was down, so to speak. So now even though he doesn't have the ear infection anymore, he just still can't fight off bugs very well.

So what I'm hoping is that his congestion from this new head cold doesn't automatically equal impending ear infection like before (because before, the infection or fluid was already there and the congestion would just make it worse). Now that his ears finally got all the way clear, I hope I can do enough preventative things to hold off an infection through the congestion. And then my mission is simply to help him strengthen his immune system with a crazy healthy, probably all organic diet and some extra vitamins and supplements (at least for awhile). And of course, still breastfeeding. If we can just get through this cold without a raging ear infection forming, we should be able to start down a better path of health (and SLEEP!) for him.

Today I had him in the steamy bathroom twice and put breastmilk in his ears multiple times even though there's no sure sign of infection yet. (It's hard to tell though right now because his second canine is about the pop through any minute, so a restless night tonight could be due to teeth or ears or both.) His humidifier runs in his room every single night and there is a Vick's thingie in it tonight for good measure. I gave him lots of vitamin C rich food today. Tomorrow we will keep doing the breastmilk, the steam, the vitamin C, and if I sense any hint of an infection I will also use warm garlic oil in his ears. I'm going to get him vitamins/supplements tomorrow too.

It's hard not to be down on myself for not figuring this out sooner, for allowing all of those abx treatments, for basically having a whole year of health and sleep problems that could have been prevented. I mean, I know I couldn't prevent him from getting sick at all and sleep stuff is always hit or miss at this age with regressions, development, etc. Still though. But beating myself up about it won't change anything, so we'll just... keep going. And not make the same mistakes again.

Christmas!

Ok, so we did let Ari open presents in the days before Christmas so he wouldn't get overwhelmed. The truth is he got WAY too much stuff for one kid!! :-P Here is *some* of what he got:

- kiddie recliner chair (his "big" present from us/Santa, pictured below)
- a Fisher Price rocking zebra
- a doll stroller (also in the photos below)
- a shopping cart (also in photos below)
- a Vtech helicopter
- a wooden personalized stepping stool (his name is carved out puzzle-piece style on the top)
- a Fisher Price retro record player
- at least... 15 new books?
- a plastic drum that came with other musical instruments that store inside the drum (shakers, tamborine, etc)
- a big fleece blanket
- one pair of jammies
- one pair of shorts + t shirt
- some hot wheels
- a sippy cup
- a remote control car
- fridge gear magnets
- small wooden toy front loader
- toy tool set (with a drill and all! this was the other present from us)
- toy 4x4 truck
- a Little People Stand and Play Rampway


I *think* that is most of it. Holy smokes!

Anyway, on Christmas Eve we had our nice dinner here at home. We had roast beef, potatoes au gratin, a salad, homemade bread, and brownies for dessert. We also tried a wine we've been wanting to try for awhile, it's called Arizona Strong and it's made here in AZ (obviously) at a winery owned by Maynard, the lead singer of Tool. It was yummy! Overall a very nice and relaxed evening. :)

Christmas morning we went straight to my Nana Mary's house to have breakfast and open presents with Sean's family. Ari did very well considering it gets a little crazy with the 6 kids. After present opening we took him home for his nap and then went back for the midday holiday meal (ham and fixings, yum!). Ari played outside with his cousins much of the afternoon and had great fun with sidewalk chalk among other things. Sean's mom had my name this year for the gift exchange and she made me a big fleece blanket and wrapped it around a basket full of goodies: a couple long sleeve shirts, slippers, some Bath and Body Works goodies, fleece jammie pants, Christmas coffee mugs, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince DVD, and a Wii game. Sean got the UA basketball tickets (four games total, two he already went to) from his sister.

And now just a few photos.... Sean let KK have the camera for quite awhile on Christmas morning and she, um, needs practice, so we didn't get quite as many good photos as usual. :-P There are still a lot though so here's some high lights for now... These are from the days before Christmas as well as Christmas morning.

Getting in the Spirit

Our own little elf, wearing the UA hat that Nana Mary got him. :)



A tree! Ari likes to help dad turn the lights on every evening. And to try to steal the ornaments throughout the day when mama isn't looking, of course. ;)

Musical stylings

Ari has added singing to his musical repertoire recently. Usually he sings to Cara while they are in the car. We've been trying to get this on video for a little while. As you can see briefly in the video, once the camera comes out all he wants is the camera. No ADHD for this child as of yet he is very focused. So without further adieu, John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt as performed by Ari.

All about Ari... as usual. :)

It's time for an Ari update! In not so good news, he has another ear infection and we may end up getting tubes in his ears. But we have a couple of other avenues of treatment to address first that could be causing the infections, like a dairy sensitivity, so we'll see. He has an appointment with the ENT next week.


Fun things about Ari right now:

- he LOVES books and wants us to read to him all day long. Lately he is also doing this cute thing where he kisses certain pictures of babies or animals and puts his head down on the page to snuggle them <3
- he loves interactive songs, like clapping songs or Itsy Bitsy Spider etc. It is so cute to watch him try to make his fingers and hands do his bidding.
- he is finally starting to climb. This is a little scary but also fun to watch, and when he figures it out, he is SO incredibly tickled with himself and it's adorable.
- he is learning new words and signs weekly, or maybe daily. His newest word is "yogurt" pronounced 'gogur." His newest sign is "help." And he puts words together, like "gogur" with the please sign, or he signs "help please" etc.
- he is also learning to sing with his kid songs (mostly Wee Sing recordings). He loves the song John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt because he likes to sing the "da da da da da da da DA" part. If you ask him to sing a song, that's what he will sing to you. :)

My not so favorite Ari things right now:

- the tantrums are still going strong, and now he has decided to try to bite when he gets mad too. (Humans sure are aggressive by nature, I guess - this isn't a learned behavior, no one has ever bit him nor does he witness people biting each other, but there you go, he tries to bite me at least once a day now.)
- my little man who loved almost all food is getting increasingly finicky and picky about eating. He spits stuff out a lot now and refuses to eat food that he liked a couple of weeks ago. Maybe it's just because he's been sick so much the past few weeks, who knows. He spit out edamame tonight, he used to love it! He hasn't wanted grapes lately either. But really it's anything, he'll eat a couple bites of whatever, spit the third bite out and throw it away, then maybe take another bite of it later and eat it, etc. I know he won't starve, but it is still annoying and a waste of food!

Some photos from a fun park trip last week...