What, besides gum, helps ear pressure for kids when flying?

[Kim]

My Nico feels tremendous pressure on planes. gum helps, but still it bothers him and he will sometimes start to cry because of discomfort in his eardrums. Is there anything besides gum and chewing that I could do to help him? He's visiting his grandparents next week, short flight, but he's already worried.

[nahkoe]

My Nico feels tremendous pressure on planes. gum helps, but still it bothers him and he will sometimes start to cry because of discomfort in his eardrums. Is there anything besides gum and chewing that I could do to help him? He's visiting his grandparents next week, short flight, but he's already worried.

Chewing has never helped me, but sucking does. Hard candy, cough drops, that kind of thing. Smaller is better, you want to really work on that piece of candy with everything you've got.

[Kristie]

Chewing has never helped me, but sucking does. Hard candy, cough drops, that kind of thing. Smaller is better, you want to really work on that piece of candy with everything you've got.

I agree, sucking on candy or drops helps me more than chewing on gum or candy. Even with the baby, sucking on the pacifier really helps her with taking off and landing on the plane.

[lunita]

We bought Lucia something called "earplanes" from the drugstore the last time we flew with her. I think they worked, when she would cooperate and wear them. \

http://www.cirrushealthcare.com/EarPlanes-C8.aspx

[Storymama]

Afrin nasal spray will help, by getting into the throat and helping keep the "drainage" end of the eustachian tubes doing their job. Just be careful with it - used sparingly for a unusual case like flying (vs. "everyday") it's FINE, and may be just the tool he needs - but Afrin is a decongestant, not a steroid or saline like other nasal sprays and is the sort that can cause dependency, if overused. (Dependency in the sense that the user gets rebound stuffiness unrelated to the original irritant - not "living in the gutter" dependency ;-).)

If you don't want to use it, try being aggressive with a neti pot before flying, and do whatever you can to minimize any chronic irritated/allergic throat that might exist - antihistamine, etc.

[keight]

Yawning and swallowing. If you can wiggle your ears, do that while yawning, it works like a charm.

[Vicky]

I have crooked eustachian tubes and flying is agony for me. I haven't flown anywhere in years, but when I did, a decongestant, chewing gum or swallowing water or some other beverage during takeoff and landing usually helped. Also, forcibly popping my ears helped if I started right away (holding my nose, closing my mouth and "blowing" with first one ear then the other blocked).

[shadesofgray]

My Nico feels tremendous pressure on planes. gum helps, but still it bothers him and he will sometimes start to cry because of discomfort in his eardrums. Is there anything besides gum and chewing that I could do to help him? He's visiting his grandparents next week, short flight, but he's already worried.

I suffer really badly from this, as do my kids. We use earplanes ear plugs. (Other brands are fine too, the main thing is that they have the valve.) They seem to help relieve the pressure, and make flying bearable for me. I used to take decongestants and/or use Afrin nose spray, and blow my nose constantly on descent to ease my excruciating sinus and ear pain every time I flew, and now I can fly pain free. You can get these at the pharmacy or the airport, and they come in kids sizes.

[elsie]

He can try to ask the flight attendant for this: Put a paper towel wet with HOT water into the bottom of a cup, and place it over the ear.

I know it sounds weird, but this SO works for me. A flight attendant did it for me once when I was in tears in pain, and it was miraculous.

They actually make a product you can fill with water and seal for this purpose. You still have to ask the plane staff for the hot water though, so I often forget to bring mine

[Kim]

Wow! Thank you all so much!! I will give him an OTC decongestant and go look for the earplanes. DH will be with them so I'll make sure he's aware of the hot towel/cup trick and we'll still pack gum and lollipops. This makes sense--N had fluid in both ears for a long time so maybe he's prone to this b/c of crooked tubes? FTR, he had 2 sets of ventilation tubes because of the chronic fluid and how badly it affected his hearing.

Thanks again!! These were great solutions.

[elsie]

They actually make a product you can fill with water and seal for this purpose.

I found a link- http://perfectlysafe.stores.yahoo.net/earthroatexk.html

it really works!

[Kathy]

We bought Lucia something called "earplanes" from the drugstore the last time we flew with her. I think they worked, when she would cooperate and wear them. \

http://www.cirrushealthcare.com/EarPlanes-C8.aspx (http://www.cirrushealthcare.com/EarPlanes-C8.aspx)

I was just going to post about these. They work really, really well for me and did for the boys as well. If I don't use them, I can end up with knife in the skull piercing pain from the pressure. With them, no pain at all. Completely worth using.