EAR INFECTIONS... UGHHHH
TLDR: Ear infections suck! Garlic oil usually works to heal them. If it doesn’t, Bidens tincture may work! It worked for us!
Ok, I’d like to share about a recent healing experience with plant medicine. My five year old daughter J really went through it recently. First, she had the flu. She mentioned her ear was hurting at one point and I convinced her to let me put a drop of garlic oil in it. That seemed to do the trick, because she didn’t mention any more pain that day.
Garlic Oil Remedy
Garlic infused oil is my go-to remedy for ear ache/infection. For every ear infection both of my kids have ever had, that’s been all I’ve needed–until this time. It’s not a remedy that we sell because it’s so easy to make your own.
DIY Garlic Oil Recipe
Simply chop up several cloves of garlic and simmer as gently as possible in olive oil. You might chop four cloves of garlic and simmer in 2 or 3 Tbsp olive oil. (Or gently heat the garlic in oil with a double boiler.) I have usually found myself making this oil under duress so I’ve just done it in a clean pan directly on heat. Simmer about 10 minutes, or heat for an hour if you have the time. Then strain out the garlic through a fine mesh tea strainer into a bottle. Ensure that no little pieces of garlic get into the oil. One of our dropper bottles cleaned and dried will do nicely. Drop two drops of this oil into *BOTH* ears, even if they’re only complaining of one.
Giving Garlic Oil Drops
I had J rest with her ear up so the oil could slide down into the ear canal and work its magic. I did NOT follow my above suggestion to add drops to the other ear. She was done cooperating, and it slipped my mind to do it later when she was asleep, which is typically my strategy.
An Outer Circle of Hell
She recovered from the flu and had a day or so of health, and then bam! Terrible pain. Ear infection was back in the other ear. She wouldn’t consent to more drops so I decided to give grape pain reliever to help her go to sleep and do the drops once she was asleep. However, once asleep, she continued to sleep on the wrong side. As I tried repeatedly to get drops into her ear, the clock ticked by, and she woke up in pain again more quickly than I expected. At that point we put drops in her ear forcibly, telling her what was happening and why. I can’t say why, but this time, for the first time, the garlic oil didn’t work. Perhaps the infection had developed into something more full blown than those other times, perhaps the garlic oil was old, perhaps we didn’t get in there quickly enough, perhaps it didn’t slide down into the ear canal? We continued trying drops and giving pain reliever throughout the night as she woke at shorter intervals with worse pain. Around 3 or 4 am I realized we were heading toward antibiotics, and that’s when I remembered Bidens.
Bidens Tincture as an Alternative to Antibiotics
Bidens is a genus of medicinal plant that grows wild and often abundant in our area. Different species proliferate around the continent, but the species I see and work with most often here is Bidens frondosa. I learned of their potential use as an alternative to antibiotics through Dave Meesters in my studies at Terra Sylva School of Botanical Medicine. Since learning of them I had used them successfully in two instances that would have necessitated antibiotics, both external, localized type bacterial infections.
Bidens! I can give her Bidens! I thought. Why didn’t I think of that sooner??
I saw it as an opportunity to hopefully avoid antibiotics, as well as an opportunity to test Bidens out on a full blown ear infection. Neither of my kids has ever had antibiotics, so we’ve had positive spirals going. I have personally experienced the negative spiral effect of using antibiotics and getting a UTI immediately after the initial infection healed. So it’s important to me to keep my kids’ positive spirals going as long as possible.
She had a first dose of 2.5 mL of Bidens around 6 am. A short time later she woke up crying as I think her pain reliever must have worn off. However, unlike the other times, she went back to sleep! I was encouraged to see the healing difference Bidens seemed to already be making. There’s no way she would have gone back to sleep without another dose of pain reliever over night.
I continued dosing 2.5 mL of Bidens every 2 hours throughout the day. She was miserable with a high fever and slept most of the day. She resisted taking it, but tolerated it best diluted in a little water with some maple syrup added. At times I questioned if this was the best course of action, but the doctors office was closed for Thanksgiving, so I resolved to continue and that if she wasn’t improved in the morning we would go straight to the doctors office for antibiotics. We also gave a few more garlic oil drops here and there in her sleep.
Overnight she had two doses at 3 mL each. In the morning, she woke up with NO FEVER, energy, and an appetite! And NO PAIN! Thank goodness, we healed her ear infection! And without antibiotics! A huge relief.
We continued with 2 more doses of tincture on our schedule before I let her be finished with taking medicine. Ideally we would have continued through that day as one does continuing a course of antibiotics once they begin to feel better.
To Give Tylenol, or Not?
During both her ear infection and flu infection I experienced the pulls that conventional pain and fever relieving medicines exert on parents. You can help your child feel almost instantly better with pain relievers that wipe away fever; but at a cost. When we force the fever away, we deprive our kids’ immune systems of the conditions to best fight infection and consequently prolong the illness. Antibiotics could have likely had Junie feeling much better without a full day of high fever, but, again, at a cost. What new infection would have taken root in the vacuum created by killing off a valuable and needed part of her microbiome?
On Dosing
A typical adult dosing regimen with Bidens tincture looks like 5 mL (1 mL = about a full dropper; our droppers include measurement marks) every two hours with a slightly larger dose before bed and a break overnight, continuing until the infection clears, and discontinuing in favor of antibiotics if the infection worsens. As with all of our dosing recommendations, they may be assumed to be for a 150 pound adult and may be adjusted up or down in proportion to one's weight. With kids I typically adjust in proportion to weight (e.g. a ~50 pound child gets 1/3 of an adult dose), however, at 2.5 mL, you'll noticed that I only adjusted to half of the typical adult dose for my daughter, who weighs a bit less than a third of our theoretical 150 pound adult. I skewed to a stronger dose, knowing that I wasn't worried about any side effects and just wanted to hit the infection hard.
I Want Positive Spirals for Us All
I am so thankful to have the knowledge and plant allies to help maintain this positive spiral for my family, and I want to share what I have with my community–you!
If you find yourself and your family facing down frequent, recurrent bacterial infections, I’m here to support your breaking the cycle. Something like an ear infection or a UTI can be treated effectively with herbs if you start herbal therapies quickly, and are alert for signs that the therapy is not working and it’s time for antibiotics. I am happy to advise on dosage and strategies for using Bidens as an alternative to antibiotics. I am obviously not a medical doctor and am not responsible if it doesn’t work, and do not encourage staying the course if you don’t see improvement relatively quickly.
Is there a beleaguered parent in your life who might benefit from this information and ideas? I appreciate your sharing!
Lindsay Perry
Community Herbalist
Durham, NC