Firstly, i'm sorry to hear of you, your family's and your son's plight in this matter.

Secondly, I am not a medical expert, by any means, but I have an interest in many sciences, etc., including biology and related fields

in most cases I would tend to think that contact with most 'household' sources of bacteria (including things like dirty tissues) would not lead to infections of this nature, much less using a pillow that has come into contact with such, unless the source was particularly virile. I.E. The difference between a normal dirty tissue and a dirty tissue that was used by, say, a contagious flu sufferer.

From what you described, I personally do not think this sounds like an outer ear infection, strictly speaking. I would be more inclined to think it was a middle ear infection that may have penetrated further than the ear drum, how or where into I could not say. I'm not sure as to how a middle ear infection would be able to cause the ear canal to swell like you have described, however, I would propose that what has occurred is that an outer ear infection has possibly arisen from a nasal infection that has spread into the outer ear via the middle ear.

Your description of a yellow/green nasal discharge and fever would seem to indicate a nasal or middle ear infection and this would be my suspicion in locating a source of infection.

If the problem persists, my advice would be to push the point with the your family doctor and/or ent doctor. I'm in australia, so I can only speak from a relatively small realm of experience, however I would advocate finding a doctor that is willing to take more of an interest in this: a doctor that cannot explain a condition and then is not curious about it's occurrence does not sound like a doctor that is taking you seriously.

I also find that a number of doctors I have been to seem to think that if they cannot see anything wrong, then there is nothing wrong (and therefore the it's in the patient's head).

Regardless of whether you stay with your current doctors or find better ones, be sure to labour the point and push to get what you want. Do not stop until you are satisfied that nothing more can be done. Of course expense will be a factor, and here again I sympathise if this is not a meetable requirement, as I am currently a poor man myself undergoing expensive and continual ent consultation as well as university study.

Thanks for your reply. It turned out that, just as you say, he does have a double middle ear infection that spread to the ear canals. Again just as you say, the first doctor was not taking us seriously and was giving us the bum's rush. (i guess the chronic, regular patients are just more lucrative and worth more of his time. So much for professionalism.) fortunately, friends on my neighborhood mom's grapevine *do* take me seriously and helped me locate a better doctor.

And i'm pleased to report that we have not had to give him antibiotics. We gave the new doctor's information to our homeopath, she had another think, and her new remedy suggestion hit the mark. My son is now clearly on the mend. The new ent doc was very understanding about our wish to avoid medication and is perfectly willing to give us follow-up checks until his eardrums are completely back to normal.

Fwiw, this doctor's opinion is that, theoretically, a child with a headcold could definitely give himself or herself an outer ear infection by sticking a finger partway into the canal to scratch.

Glad to hear this has been remedied.

Yes, I did miss the obvious :wink: ... I forgot cross-contamination from site-to-site, this is completely understandable considering many nasal and middle/outer ear infections are similar, and the locations are so closely associated and located.

Your resolution makes me more seriously consider an alternative therapeutic approach for my own ent problems, something i've been considering for a while but haven't actually looked into.