Itchy Ears?

[Betty04]

Hi,

 

I am new to the board but have been reading posts for the last couple of weeks. I have a 3 year old with tics- eye blinking, snort, and possibly a head tilt? The head tilt is why I am asking the question to others about "itchy ears."

 

Trying to be brief with his history: The eye blinking first appeared at 20 months and was in the car only. It then happened every couple of months for about a week to 2 at a time outside the car and was worsened by TV. Looking back I realized how he had a light sensitivity as he complained out of proportion to the sunlight when riding in the car. In Oct 2007 he had a terrifying, acute onset of eye blinking the day after his flu shot. The pediatrician and neurologist were very concerned and order an MRI. He had an EEG for the previous eye blinking and both the MRI and EEG were normal. The blinking continued at a seemingly constant rate and him even complaining that he could not see. He was giving antibotics by the pediatrician 3 days after the flu shot as I suggested this may be PANDAS. All strep tests/titers were negative. I was sent to a psychiatrist next who told me to take him off the antibotics. When I did the blinking worsened. I contacted my ENT b/c he had tubes placed and his adenoids removed in Aug 07. He had been off and on antibotics for ear and sinus infections and his allergy testing (standard tests from allergists) came back negative (except for dogs, we do have a poodle). I took him to the ENT because he was complaining that his ears were itchy. I could not understand how he got an ear infection as he had tubes and was home for the past 2 weeks since all the blinking started. The ENT told me his ears were fine and that kids sometimes complain of itchy ears because their tonsils are bothering them. He prescrbied clindamycin and after a 10 day course the blinking was gone. He was open to removing his tonsils as we had pulled some research with case reports of this helping tics. He had his tonsils out in Dec 07 and everything was fine until Feb. I first noticed a vocal tic... a snort, not that frequent, but now has occured on and off with blinking on a daily basis for the past 3 weeks. The severity of the tics is no where near what happen after the flu shot. I have seen a nutritionist at a DAN doctor's office and have put him on probotics. He has stool testing for yeast which came back normal and tomorrow we are having blood drawn for IGg allergy testing and some other viral levels in the blood. I took him to the doctor on Friday because he had been home with a stomach bug for the past week but since last Thursday (over a week ago) he has been complaining of ear pain and itchy ears. The teachers at school even told me they noticed him pulling his ears and complaining of ear pain. But the pediatrician says his ears look fine, the tubes are in place and he had a negative strep test? So why do his ears bother him... I did not even ask the pediatrician as they don't have any answers. The other strange thing that happen is on Thursday after I took him to the pediatrician, I went to work and my sitter put him down for a nap. He slept almost 3 hours, woke up crying and congested and his eyes all puffy. When I saw him when I came home from work I was convinced he caught a cold and put him to bed early, next day woke up absolutely fine? He did sleep alot the next afternoon, basically never got up from his nap and then slept through the night? He does not act sick in the least and is not congested anymore. I did start Nasonex as I am finally thinking the allergist I saw last year before all the surgeries may have been right, plus I have read here that some of you have found it to be helpful.

 

Anyway, sorry for the long post, I would just appreciate any comments or insights any of you have as you are all so knowledgable and I know understand my distress! Thanks!

[Caryn]

Itchy ears sounds like an allergic reaction. What kind of pillow was it? What kind of detergent? Also, itchy skin is common symptom of food intolerance.

For example:

 

For many years there has also been proof that the intestine is not the only tissue targeted by the immune reaction to gluten. The prime example of this a disease called dermatitis herpetiformis where the gluten sensitivity manifests primarily in skin, with only mild or no intestinal involvement. Now from more recent research it seems that the almost endless number of autoimmune diseases of various tissues of the body also may have the immune response to dietary gluten and its consequent autoimmune reaction to tissue transglutaminase as the main immunologic cause. A study from Italy showed that the longer gluten sensitive people eat gluten, the more likely they are to develop autoimmune diseases. They found that in childhood celiacs, the prevalence of autoimmune disease rose from a baseline of 5% at age two to almost 35% by age 20. This is a big deal if you think of how much more complicated one’s life is when one is both gluten sensitive AND has an additional autoimmune disease.

Rest of article can be found at: http://www.celiac.com/articles/759/1/Early...e-MD/Page1.html

 

Absence of gut symptoms does not mean the absence of allergy or intolerance. Gluten proteins have an insideous way of coming out in all manner of places-- gut, intestines, brain, skin.... and it takes a long time to get rid of them if you are gluten intolerant.

 

Could be an allergy to something else, too. IgG will probably tell you that. For me, every time I eat gluten now I get itchy elbows. Used to have dermatitis herpetiformis on them but that went away when I went gluten free. This is how I know I've had gluten somewhere in the diet. Helps me sleuth.

Just my two cents.

Hope this helps.

Caryn

http://healthy-family.org

[kim]

Betty,

 

Another thing to consider is yeast causing the itching. My oldest son used to itch his ears so hard it was awful. He even did it in his sleep. Your son may have sore ears simply from the itching. You may want to try a little warm olive oil with fresh garlic. Peel some fresh garlic cloves, crush them with a broad blade knife and warm the crushed cloves in a small sauce pan with the olive oil for a few minutes to steep them a bit. You can use a dropper or a cotton ball to saturate and sqeeze a few drops into the ears when it has cooled to warm only again.

 

As far as the head tilt, I just posted this for someone else who said their child had his head tilted to one side. I'm sure if you google toticollis, you can find better info but it might be something you want to investigate a further.

 

 

Torticollis

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torticollis

 

Infections in the posterior pharynx can irritate the nerves supplying the neck muscles and cause torticollis, and these infections may be treated with antibiotics if they are not too severe, but could require surgical debridement in intractable cases.

[Betty04]

Itchy ears sounds like an allergic reaction. What kind of pillow was it? What kind of detergent? Also, itchy skin is common symptom of food intolerance.

For example:

 

For many years there has also been proof that the intestine is not the only tissue targeted by the immune reaction to gluten. The prime example of this a disease called dermatitis herpetiformis where the gluten sensitivity manifests primarily in skin, with only mild or no intestinal involvement. Now from more recent research it seems that the almost endless number of autoimmune diseases of various tissues of the body also may have the immune response to dietary gluten and its consequent autoimmune reaction to tissue transglutaminase as the main immunologic cause. A study from Italy showed that the longer gluten sensitive people eat gluten, the more likely they are to develop autoimmune diseases. They found that in childhood celiacs, the prevalence of autoimmune disease rose from a baseline of 5% at age two to almost 35% by age 20. This is a big deal if you think of how much more complicated one’s life is when one is both gluten sensitive AND has an additional autoimmune disease.

Rest of article can be found at: http://www.celiac.com/articles/759/1/Early...e-MD/Page1.html

 

Absence of gut symptoms does not mean the absence of allergy or intolerance. Gluten proteins have an insideous way of coming out in all manner of places-- gut, intestines, brain, skin.... and it takes a long time to get rid of them if you are gluten intolerant.

 

Could be an allergy to something else, too. IgG will probably tell you that. For me, every time I eat gluten now I get itchy elbows. Used to have dermatitis herpetiformis on them but that went away when I went gluten free. This is how I know I've had gluten somewhere in the diet. Helps me sleuth.

Just my two cents.

Hope this helps.

Caryn

http://healthy-family.org

[Betty04]

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences. I hope that the allergy testing we did on Monday will provide some answers! I will post any helpful insights that hopefully will be revealed!