Photo from www.earcheck.com
By Amy L. Hatch
You know the signs: Tugging on the ear, late-night hysteria, a fever. They can only mean one thing — the dreaded ear infection. Or is it? Could be teething, could be a virus, could be plain old orneriness.
Parents, I am here to tell you that you don’t have to guess anymore. All you need is EarCheck, the handy little device that lets you check to see if there is fluid in your kid’s ear and tells when you should consider to taking them to the doctor.
I can see you’re skeptical. Heck, I was, too. But I can tell you from experience that this sucker works. My oldest child is a lot like her mama, especially in the fact that she had 11 ear infections during the first year of her life. I’m on alert for any sign or symptom. Lucky for me, I discovered EarCheck by happenstance.
The company offered me a chance to check out their product, which uses gentle sound waves to detect the presence of middle ear fluid, a key sign of an ear infection. This is the same technology used by thousands of physicians since 1997, and is a technique recommended by the American Academies of Pediatrics and Family Physicians, according to the EarCheck Web site.
You might think it sounds like I’m trying to sell you on this product, but I can tell you that we’ve used it and for us, it works to an impressive degree of accuracy. Emmie was fussing about ear pain and when I used the device, it showed that she had a low level of fluid in her ear.
According to the product literature, there was enough fluid to consider taking her to the doc, which we did. And what do you know — the kid had fluid in her ear! While in that case it didn’t lead to infection, it was enough for the doctor to tell us to dose her with Motrin and to watch her for any other signs.
OK, so it does work. But how?
Simply place the tip of EarCheck® into the child’s outer ear canal and press the SCAN button; the monitor works by sending a pleasant chirping sound into the ear canal. Some of this sound bounces off the eardrum and travels back to the instrument’s built-in microphone. EarCheck® then analyzes the reflected sound to determine if the eardrum is working normally. If there is fluid in the ear, the eardrum’s vibrations may be restricted. The greater the fluid level, the greater the reflected sound. – www.earcheck.com
I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on the Interwebz. I don’t self-diagnose, and I certainly don’t claim to be able to diagnose my kids. But EarCheck gives me some of peace of mind when that little light lands in the “green” zone — especially at 2 in the morning. And you know what? Ten times out of 10, for us it has been accurate.
‘Tis the season for ear infections right now, and chambanamoms has one EarCheck device, valued at $49.95, for a lucky reader. Just leave us a comment by 5 p.m. on Monday, Jan 18 telling us why you need an EarCheck to win!
Full disclosure: EarCheck provided the author with two devices; one to review and one to give away, valued at a total of $100. The author is not a medical professional and was not paid to write this review. All opinions in this post are hers and hers alone.
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I have 7 kids! Need I say more?
This would save many trips to the doctor for ear checks!
I need an EarCheck because my daughter never seems to get a fever with her ear infections, which makes it hard to decide whether we need to take her in or not from her other symptoms.
I need the EarCheck for peace of mind when I cannot get to my pediatrician right away
I need the EarCheck b/c I keep missing ear infections and get to the Ped when my little one is in lots of pain. I like the idea of seeing if something is brewing earlier so I can get him there before it gets bad! He is hard to read when he gets an infection and this seems like a great tool to add to the toolbox!
Do these things work on adults? I get ear infections like they are going out of style, always in conjunction with a sinus infection and always at the lease convenient time.
My friends and I were just talking about how we needed something like this! It’s so hard to know if they have an ear infection-especially when they’re teething. We’ve had 6 ear infections in our house in the last two months.
My son suffered horribly with earaches, tubes in his ears, the whole thing. He definitely took after me in that respect. My daughter tends to get earaches a few times a year, and the pressure is horrible. I would love to have this on hand to check her out as well as my grandson who is 7 months and most likely taking after his father and myself as he’s already had ear infections! This is actually pretty neat, I have never seen it before.
My daughter is suffering from her first ear infection, along with teething, and now a case of pneumonia. It has been a rough week! I thought she was just teething for the longest time so this product would have been great to have!
Wow what a great product! My son never has other symptoms when he has an ear infection so this would help out great!
I would LOVE this. My son feels no pain and when I finally take him in for the ear infection it is bad, bad, bad. Four ear infections in 12 weeks. Top that!
I am a first time mom who just experienced her baby’s first ear infection along with teething at the same time. It was not fun. However, I think you should give it to the woman with 7 kids! Thanks for checking this product out for us, I didn’t even know something like this existed.
I don’t like to dole out the antibiotic unless absolutely necessary- this would be a great way to keep an “eye” on the sitch without making an initial trip to the peds.
I would like to give the earcheck to a friend with her first child.
My middle daughter (yes I have 3) has been prone to ear infections and without fail she wakes up in the middle of the night screaming and hysterical. EarCheck would help me determine whether there is a) a problem, b) can’t wait until morning to see a doctor or c) need to put on clothes and make a trip to the ER….
I would love to win the Earcheck as I have a 4 year old and 1 year old. My 1 year old daughter still cannot talk but whenever I see her tugging her ears and fussing I feel like I must take her to the Dr. Sometimes it is an ear infection, other times not. This would help determine if it was.
I would love to be able to check my baby girl’s ears and see if a visit to the pediatrician is necessary. I have a total of four kids, so someone is always in need of a check. My four year old daughter had an ear infection last winter that left a hole in her eardrum…..I had no idea it was even bothering her!?!?
My son had ear infections back-to-back-to-back-to-back… before finally getting tubes in this past year. My daughter was just diagnosed with her first ear infection this past week, and I’m really hoping she does not have to go through the same thing that he did! He never ran a fever, so it was difficult to know what was going on with him, without going to the doctor. Having this tool on hand would really help out with early diagnosis and make it less difficult for the kids.