long before antibiotics there were mothers and grandmothers. putting heat on an earache was a standard of home care in this era. when you put heat on an ear or put warm oil in the ear canal (another home treatment) when a child has a middle ear infection it can cause the eardrum to rupture. this will cause fluid (pus) to drain out of the ear and the reduced pressure will relieve the pain. then of course you now have a draining ruptured eardrum to deal with. a ruptured eardrum may be nature's way of curing an ear infection but it is probably not the most ideal situation. some ruptured eardrums take weeks or months to heal (depending on their size and location) but they do eventually heal in the vast majority of cases. so it's okay to use the heat but this process may cause an eardrum rupture. something that helps and what i have used for my son who has had constant earaches since birth is to dampen a washcloth with water place it in the microwave just enough to get hot without drying it out (probably about 15-30 seconds. check often until it is almost too hot to hold). then place another wash cloth over the hot/wet one so as not to burn the skin and lay the ear on top of it. the point of doing this is to allow some moist heat into the ear for comfort and possibly loosen and drain the ear. they do make over the counter earache drops i think in the children's section but it is just to ease pain not clear infection so if it is severely infected it will be best to get some antibiotic and they will usually prescribe some stronger drops as well. **something my grandmother had done when she was little was for a smoker to blow cigar or cigarette smoke in the affected ear. and my father-in-law told me that a neighbor who was nursing would squirt breast milk in his ear for infection and it would help him.
is it ok to use heat (warm towel) on a ear ache? . i heard an old wives tale that if you fill a sock with dry rice and warm it in the microwave then lay the affected ear on it that it will somehow draw out the moisture built up behind the ear drum and relieve the pain from the pressure. i find this hard to believe but i do know heat can soothe pain and i was wondering is it ok to use a warm towel or some mild heat on an ear that you think might be infected? could this actually cause more problems instead of helping?