If your child has outer ear infection, he or she may complain of ear pain, itch, difficulty hearing or a blocked ear. There may also be ear discharge.

If the problem is a middle ear infection, your child could have fever, headache, nausea or vomiting and may feel irritable, drowsy and loses his or her appetite. There could be ear pain and hearing difficulty. Young children may pull their ear or poke their fingers inside. Sometimes, the eardrum may rupture and there is a thick and sometimes bloody ear discharge. The perforated eardrum usually heals naturally.

Some children have recurrent middle ear infection and this can lead to ‘glue ear’, where there is thick fluid in the ear. ‘Glue ear’ can cause a child to have difficulty in hearing and result in speech, language and other developmental delays as well as behavioural problems like poor attention.