Dr. Mercola reports that "A few drops of breast milk in a child’s ear canal every few hours usually works to clear up an ear infection within 24 to 48 hours.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2000/08/20/ear-infections-part-one.aspx
That's interesting and certainly more palatable than the cure my great grandpappy told us that they used when he was a soldier in the Czar's army. He told us that urine applied to a bit of cotton wadding and placed in the ear would cure an ear infection in 24 hours. Urine is actually sterile when it comes out of the bladder and it's acidic, so it makes sense. Still, I'd rather have a bit of milk in my ear than cotton soaked with pee! I don't think that great granddad was pulling our legs. He was a very stoic man and not known to joke.
I had severe ear infections when I was a child that were beginning to threaten my hearing. I had to have my tonsils and adenoids out and drainage tubes placed in my ears. Back in those days, hospital staff did not encourage parents to stay with their children. Before the surgery, I was out wandering in the hall, when this orderly came and got me. All he said was "come with me." Next thing I know, he was pinning me to the bed and a nurse was sticking a needle in my arm to draw blood. I was terrified and I thrashed, which pulled the needle out of my arm. The orderly shouted at me "now look what you did!"
In case anyone wonders why I'm terrified of hospitals, this little incident had a great deal to do with it. The way I was treated when having my first child added to the way I feel about avoiding those places. And don't even get me started on mental hospitals.
