Symptoms of Otitis media

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Acute otitis media causes:

severe earache, due to the pressure of the mucus on the eardrum,
fever;
flu-like symptoms in children, such as vomiting and lethargy;
slight deafness.

Babies with ear infections will be hot and irritable. They cannot point to the source of discomfort so it can be hard to tell what is wrong with a baby, but an ear infection is one possibility to consider if your baby is unsettled in this way.

In rare cases the eardrum will become perforated (a hole will form in it), and pus will then be seen running out of the ear. This sometimes helps to relieve pain, by releasing the pressure on the eardrum, but can lead to reinfection.

Chronic otitis media often has fewer symptoms, or milder versions of them. However, they go on for a long time, or keep coming back. There is also more likely to be pus or fluid coming out of the ear.

Not all earaches are caused by ear infections â€“ especially if there are no other symptoms. Earache may also be caused by build up of uninfected mucus after a cold, or toothache.