ear infection... Please help! Sorry a little long

My son is 12 weeks old and has an ear infection. We went to the doctor last week on Thursday and was told he had an infection in his left ear. Well the doctor put him on some antibiotics and told us to come back in 3 weeks so he could check his ears. Well the next day (Friday) he cried all day long and didn't stop for a nap or a breath. I was sooo scared. So I called the doctor back and he said to come back in. He told us that the medicine he had him on was probably hurting his stomach and that both his ears were swelled up. So he gave me some new medicines and some ear drops that were suppose to numb his ears. Its been a full week later and he still cries out in pain for long periods of time. I called the doctor back today and told him that and asked if the antibiotics were suppose to have helped by now and he said to bring him back in. My son acts like the ear drops hurt sooo bad when we put them in and the nurse said it could be that his ears are raw??? I have no idea how he got a ear infection. He has never been around anyone that smokes, never had water in his ears, and we don't go outside if it is cold or windy. My pharmasist told me that he got the infection from eating laying down in my arms and that I needed to feed him sitting up. I didn't know that. It was hard to sit him all the way up to feed him with the bottles that he was on so I changed them from the Soothie bottles to the Playtex Airvent bottles. Nothing is helping. Is there anything I can do to help ease the pain for my son. I hate it that he is in sooo much pain. I give him Tylenol, the ear drops (when needed for pain) and the doctor told me that twice a day I can give him Ibuprophen. What else can I do to help ease the pain? I would love to have any advice. It is breaking my heart that he is in pain. This is the first time that he has been sick or anything since he was born. Thanks for reading this.

[Logan206]

Is he more comfortable/sleep better when you hold him upright?  It can be very painful to sleep lying flat when you have an ear infection.  You should put something under the crib mattress so it is at an incline.  Or, trying having him sleep in a chair.  When my son was  4.5 months, he had a bad double ear infection.  We had him sleep in his bouncy seat for a few nights and it did help.  Ever since, I've kept his mattress at an incline.

Some kids are just more prone to get ear infections---so I'm sure it's nothing you did.  What did the doc say today when you took him back in?  Seems the antibiotics should have cleared up an infection by now.

[romme80]

We have to go back in at 10am tomorrow for him to look at them again. I thought the meds should have worked in a week as well. He is still in his basinet and we do have it at a incline. That is the only way he will sleep anyway. Thanks for the advice.

[GNicole]

I am so sorry your son is going through this (and you). The only advice I can give is if he is in alot of distress I would take him to the ER. Good luck to you and I will keep you in my prayers. Keep us posted.

[kerryke]

Some antibiotics dont work on certain ear infections or certain kids.  If it is not clearing up then they should finish the course and put him on a different category of antibiotic (like if they had him on amoxicillin, they should get out of that family(augmentin is in the same family) and try maybe something called omnicef, that is what worked for our daughter, and then we had to have the Rocephin shots.  They have to switch the antibiotic for immunity build-up and for what works on the infections your child gets.  As our Dr says, sometimes the anatomy of the inner-ear just is not on the baby's side yet, and as they grow towards two years old the eustachian tube elongates and tilts allowing the fluid in there to drain.  The fluid is what leads to an infection because if it doesnt drain out, then it sits and builds bacteria. Going outside doesnt really matter and getting water in there ears doesnt really matter because there is a barrier between the ouside ear and inner ear.  Write me if you want to know more, we have gone thru this a lot with our daughter (10 months).

[deanne11]

I think if your 12 week old baby is in that much pain you need to go to the ER.
Serisously.  Drs rush you in and out of their office so fast anymore.
As a mother, our hearts break for our children.  Go to the ER....at the very least, it's a second opinion.