This is a guest post from Sarah of Early Bird Mom, sharing her ear ache remedy.
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My toddler woke up screaming last night just after 10pm, which was very unusual for him.
At first I thought his brother in the bed next to him had just made a noise and woken him up. But when William awoke again at 12, 4am and 5am for good, it was clear that he was sick. Poor baby his nose was running like a faucet and he was super-clingy. My plans for an early morning quiet time were scrapped.
A dose of Ibuprofen helped a bit but when he wouldn’t stop screaming later in the morning, I worried about ear infection. My oldest son used to get frequent ear infections and he ended up with ear tubes to help clear things up. Since switching to a more real food diet, my kids are sick much less, but it looked like this time, we had not escaped.
I hoped to avoid having to take my little one to the doctor who would surely prescribe antibiotics, so I quickly whipped up a batch of garlic mullein ear ache oil. (Yes, I’m weird in that I actually have mullein on hand). I had used this oil last year to cure ear pain in my 8 year old. The garlic in the oil is anti-bacterial and the mullein treats the inflammation and swelling. One of my favorite things about this oil is that it stops the pain so fast in just a few minutes, as opposed to waiting 24 hours for antibiotics to take effect.
It took just a few minutes to assemble the recipe and I let it simmer for a half an hour before taking a couple drops for William’s ears. He didn’t like the feeling of having the drops trickle into his ears but it seemed to help pretty quickly. I gave him a couple more doses of the drops during the day. His night was much better than the night before and he hasn’t been fussy at all today.
He still has a runny nose but his ear pain is gone I’m so grateful for this easy treatment.
You can buy garlic mullein drops but they can be pricey. It’s so easy to put together a batch at home.
Recipe: Garlic Mullein Ear Drops, for Ear Ache Relief
Ingredients:
- 3-4 cloves raw garlic, crushed
- 1/4-1/2 c. dried mullein (I got mine from Mountain Rose Herbs)
- cover with olive oil
Method:
Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan and simmer on very low for at least 30 minutes, up to several hours. Be careful not to let the herb burn. Strain and decant into a dropper bottle.
To use: Warm the bottle by putting it into a cup of hot water for a couple minutes (optional). Put a couple drops into affected ear as needed for pain. Warning: do not use in an ear that is draining or if you suspect a perforated eardrum.
buy bottles with droppers at Amazon…
A small bottle will go a long way so you may find that you have way more oil than you need. In that case, you can do what I did and give some away to friends. They will surely be happy to have them for those middle-of-the-night ear aches.
Thanks, Sarah, for sharing your wisdom! I’ve never made this ear oil exactly, but I shared another ear infection story including garlic oil and a new one on antibiotics and natural remedies…
It’s Natural Health Month at KS! See all the month’s posts HERE.
Other Natural Health Posts at KS
- how to get rid of warts naturally
- natural remedies for ear infections
- stomach problems: the BRATY diet for real food
- doTERRA essential oils review
- How an elimination diet cured eczema
- What’s Eating Your Child? review
Sarah Mueller is a blogger and homeschool mom of 4. Her blog, www.earlybirdmom.com, is all about helping busy moms get more things done.
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Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money. If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.
Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this post to Amazon and Mountain Rose Herbs from which I will earn some commission if you make a purchase. See my full disclosure statement here.
Oh how I wish I would have had this recipe when my babies were younger. Blessings~Nancy
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This looks great! I had mullein growing in the yard a few years ago, but it got pulled because it was in the future location of the sandbox.
How long will this keep in bottles? Refrigerate or store on shelf?
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Sarah Reply:
March 11th, 2013 at 9:26 am
It should keep a year in the fridge, although I just keep mine on the shelf. As long as you strain the garlic well, it should be ok.
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We have had great results with garlic mullein oil. Of course, your kid will smell like pizza for a week. (not sure if that is good or bad)
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I’m glad this worked for you. I will just caution that it doesn’t always. My daughter is prone to ear infections–not as much as some children, but certainly more than her sister! I’ve used garlic oil with success sometimes. However, this last time, I used it, and she FELT better but didn’t actually GET better. When she saw the doctor, BOTH ears were badly infected–to quote the doctor, it was “nasty.” She had had no pain after using the garlic oil, but apparently healing the pain didn’t heal the infection.
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I just tried this a month ago, and the ear pain went away within 10 minutes! I reapplied throughout the day just to stay on top of the infection. It never came back! No meds, no antibiotics, no doctor bills…I love this remedy!
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Sarah Mueller Reply:
March 11th, 2013 at 3:43 pm
Isn’t it exciting when something natural works so much better than conventional meds?
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I went to the Mountain Rose Herb website. So what exactly do I look for in purchasing mullein for this remedy…the dried flowers or leaf?
Thanks for your help.
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Sarah Mueller Reply:
March 11th, 2013 at 6:28 pm
For this garlic ear oil, you’ll want the mullein leaf.
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Yes, it’s always good when we can handle these situations without a trip to doctor. Garlic oil is quite common in India for ear ache.
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One night years ago, before I was very far down the “crunchy” path, my toddler had a terrible earache all night long, and I read about these drops. Of course, I didn’t have any mullein, but I made some garlic oil and was amazed at how fast it worked!
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I have never heard of this mixture, but have used just straight olive oil, slightly warmed, with amazingly fast results. The few times my kids have had earaches, I have been amazed every time to see how quickly they get relief.
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My daughter had an ear infection last month to the point where she was crying because of the pain. My husband was ready to take her to urgent care, but I decided to try a method my naturalpath recommended. I heated up an onion, placed a cloth over it and held it up to my daughter’s ear. Within 10 minutes, the pain was gone, and she fell asleep. We did not need any other treatment. I wish I had known about this method when she was younger and had antibiotics prescribed because of ear infections.
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I used to have issues with ear aches all the time. Thanks for sharing this.
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It is ammazing to know that there are effective natural remedies for common health problems/infections. The best part is tha these remedies such as the garlic mullein ear drops do no have the negative side effects associated with presciption drugs/antibiotics.
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Carol Reply:
March 13th, 2013 at 3:09 pm
Sorry about the duplicated comments, wanted to edit the comment before posting but realized that I had already hit the “enter” button.
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Any advice for a kid complaining their ears are plugged? She insists they don’t hurt but her hearing is definitely affected by the plugged ears. We’ve tried cleaning them but it doesn’t seem to help.
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Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship Reply:
March 21st, 2013 at 11:34 pm
Renee,
My kids always have horrible trouble hearing after an ear infection. Has she had a cold in the last month? Could just be fluid in the ears, no biggie, and time is your best offense. That and talking loudly, but I know – it’s so annoying as the parent! (Although probably more annoying to them)
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The warning about not using if eardrum may be perforated or draining scares me…how would i know?
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Sarah Reply:
March 20th, 2013 at 7:14 am
The drainage is easy to spot – yellow drippy stuff coming out of the ear (not the same as ear wax which would be sticky and clumpy).
Here is a link about perforated eardrums: http://kidshealth.org/kid/health_problems/sight/eardrum.html#
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printing this one for future reference. I usually use the hyland earache drops. When my kids have an earache I always carry the bottle in my pocket so it is body temp when I put the drops in. When they were still nursing, I would put the bottle in my bra between my breasts and put the drops in whenever we sat down to nurse.
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Do a search on onion juice and earache. It has worked for me and doesn’t stink like garlic. I cruched the onion to get a little bit of juice, warmed it and poured it in my ear.
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Thanks for this Sarah is there a substitute for 1/4-1/2 c. dried mullein? I am really a believer in natural remedies so this is fantastic
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Sarah Reply:
April 13th, 2013 at 7:23 am
I’m not aware of any substitute but you can just leave the mullein out. The garlic is quite potent on it’s own. Good luck!
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Thank you so much for this. My 6yo daughter had grommets put in on 1 March 2013 and today she showed me the smelly yellow discharge from her ear. Now not in a mood for the doctor or antibiotics I turned to Google and came across this post. I always have a bottle of Equinox Botanicals Mullein Garlic Ear Oil on hand. As soon as it runs low, I order the next bottle.
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