As I said, the possible connection only occurred to me after we stopped BF
at night and her ear infections stopped too.  We stopped night BF for other
reasons, on my initiative, with full participation in the discussion from my
daughter.  This was two years before we stopped BF completely.

I don't advise mothers about feeding position other than to make sure they
are comfortable and the baby is able to latch well.  But if I hear of
someone with recurrent ear infections in a BF child, I ask about night
habits and if appropriate, offer my anecdote, as an anecdote.  If just
sitting up in bed had helped us, it might have been nice to know, but it
wouldn't have made me continue night BF any longer.  And when I read about
how BF protects against ear infections, I try to imagine how, or WHEN, my
children could have had more frequent ones, and I realize that one anecdote
does not merit ignoring massive epidemiologic evidence.

I have had one ear infection in my life, when I was 18.  But both my kids
were 'ear babies', and the younger one had his first 2 episodes of purulent
otitis media, complete with fever and pus draining from his ear, while
exclusively BF.  No one ever, ever, EVER brought up BF in any context on any
of the multitude of occasions we were in contact with HCPs because of it.
The attitude was, ears are ears, food is food, and if the problem is in the
ears, well, treat the ears.  This is typical of the fragmented way of
thinking in allopathic medicine but it suited me fine in the situation,
though I do believe food is more than just fuel to be metabolized.  I know
there were many other routes we could have gone regarding the earaches, but
it's ancient history now.

Rachel Myr
realizing it's over a decade since I had to take a kid to the doctor on a
Sunday evening because of an earache
Kristiansand, Norway

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