How I treated my ear infection for $0 without a trip to the doctor

It wasn't my plan to wake up this morning and write a blog post.  But I am just so excited I thought I would share with you how I cured my ear infection!

Okay, so it's not a sexy or even festive blog topic.  But it works!

Back on Friday I had a friend over for an ice cream date with some much needed catching up. Even though my friend is very interesting and I had been looking forward to our date for some time I kept finding myself distracted my ear pain.  I have had ear infections before and knew that was exactly what was causing the pain.
My doctors office is open on weekends for walk- in care but I really did not want to drag my kids down there and wait in the waiting room for 40 minutes to be told what I already knew- that I had an ear infection.  I also did not want to shell out for a prescription.  But what choice did I have?

That question kept floating around in my head because I couldn't shake the feeling that I did have a choice, that I had read of a home remedy somewhere....

So I looked it up and there it was, hydrogen peroxide! A bit in the ear, it said, and I would be cured!

Saturday evening I laid on my side on the couch and had That Guy put a few drops of peroxide in the affected ear. I left it in for four minutes and then sat up and wiped the peroxide out.   By later that night I noticed that there was much less pain in my ear.  But the infection was not gone. I was a bit disappointed in this home remedy to be sure.

When I woke up Sunday morning it was the same story, ear better than it had been on Friday but ear pain still wasn't gone completely.  I thought it was worth one more try.

This time instead of using a couple of drops I had That Guy put about half a cap full into my ear.  Then I laid still for ten minutes instead of four.  When I got up I rinsed my ear with warm water.  And immediately the pain was gone (I felt like I had water in my ear- because I likely did from rinsing- for about an hour or so after but NO PAIN)!  Even though I didn't hurt any more I was still skeptical. I mean this hadn't worked the first time. So I reserved judgement.  I had planned to write on Monday about the results of my attempted home remedy.  But you might notice that when body parts do not hurt they are largely forgotten about.  I only remembered now because I was putting the peroxide away.

It is a bit of a strange sensation to have the peroxide fizzing and bubbling away in your ear for ten minutes.  But since those ten minutes saved me hauling the kids to the doctors office and paying for a prescription I was happy to put up with it.

Now, gentle readers, I want to be perfectly clear. I am not a medical doctor. But this home remedy just might be worth trying next time you or your little ones get that old familiar ache.

Our peroxide, this family's fix-it-all.