Help for chronic earaches

Haley Figueroa, MA, LMFT Family Therapist, shares advice for new parents on the best way to treat your baby's constant earaches
How To Help Your Newborn's Chronic Earaches
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Help for chronic earaches

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What advice do I have for new parents dealing with constant earaches? I have a lot of empathy for parents dealing with this. All three of my kids dealt with chronic ear infections and it was tough. I mean just the grumpy moods, the sleepless nights, all of that is enough to just make you want to pull your hair out. So I definitely get it. But again, even as tough as it is during that time my big recommendation is to really work on taking care of yourself. Because more than ever during that time when you’re not sleeping well, your kids are not sleeping well and they have more demands, it’s really important for you to take care of yourself so that you can cope and be more patient. The other thing I would recommend if you’re dealing with earaches is to really try to rule out any possible things that are causing the earaches and really take those preventative measures to make sure that you’re preventing those things. So, for example, common colds increase mucus and that can really increase earaches and ear infections for children, especially vulnerable ears are children that are more susceptible to that. So making sure that you’re boosting their immune system. If you have a very small child breastfeeding and you’re already doing that, that’s great – that helps boost the immune system. Toddlers, increasing their raw fruits and vegetables so that they can boost their immune system. Also talking to your pediatrician about supplements that might help, things like probiotic, especially if your child is taking antibiotics on a regular basis, they really need that probiotic to boost up their digestive system. Another thing that really helped our family – and I know this can be kind of a controversial issue – is eliminating food allergies and sensitivities, especially the food sensitivities, because they tend to be delayed and it’s hard to kind of weed them out and know what’s going on. And the two ways that it’s often done to do this is to eliminate – do an elimination diet, or to do blood work to find out what’s going on. Well, we did this with all three of our kids and actually our boys were scheduled for ear tubes twice and we ended up going from chronic back to back ear infections to the ear infections going away. It was amazing for us. So I’m not saying this is the answer for everybody, but it’s something to look into and to rule out. So just look into all the options, find out what might be causing it and then also really take good care of yourself so that you can be at your best, or the best that you can be, when you’re going through this tough time.

Haley Figueroa, MA, LMFT Family Therapist, shares advice for new parents on the best way to treat your baby's constant earaches

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Haley Figueroa, MA, LMFT

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist & Brain Health Educator

Haley provides patients at the world-renowned Amen Clinics with in-depth psycho-social assessments, brain health education, parenting courses and Marriage and Family Therapy counseling. She has more than a decade of experience working with children, adolescents, and their families in a variety of environments including school and clinical settings. Haley also has specialized training in conflict resolution, lifestyle and weight management, relationship enhancements, and parenting. Creator of My Baby is Christian, a learning and spiritual development system for young children, Haley has taught several courses at the Amen Clinics, including a 12-week Anxiety and Depression group, Love and Logic parenting, and Amen Clinic’s Two-Day Brain Health Course. She also authors a parenting blog. Haley earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Child and Adolescent Studies at California State University, Fullerton and a Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology, with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy, from Pepperdine University. A wife and mother of three, she is passionate about helping individuals and families reach their goals, enhance their relationships and achieve optimal brain health!

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