Warm Ear Drops?

[KittyPaus, RN]

Forgive me for not posting to pediatric board. Hoping for more responses, faster!

This question is on a pedriatic inservice test.

The question: Warm ear meds before administering? Check to see if too hot?

My med book says nothing about warming otic meds prior to administration.

TIA

[Joan_RN_CO]

Many ears ago we use to warm to tipid so that they were not to cold going in the ear causing issues or to hot and buring the ear.

Can't really answer your quesitons only I have not warmed ear drops in a very long time.

[Jenny P]

I don't work peds, but I can answer from my own experience. Warm ear drops are just more comfortable for the pt. Even just putting the plastic or glass med bottle in a glass of hot tap water for a few minutes makes all of the difference in the world to me. Having room temp ear drops dropping into my ears makes me feel doubly sorry for those who have iced calorics done (I know, they are usually comatose, but I imagine how awful it must feel)!

[SmilingBluEyes]

drop a tiny bit on the wrist to check if too hot. i would prefer WARM drops in my ears any time to room temp,myself.

[KittyPaus, RN]

Well, it took lazybones here a whole 5 minutes to find the answer to my own question at Ask Jeeves! :imbar

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m3231/4_31/74091592/p1/article.jhtml

Excerpt:

"* Don't use eardrops that aren't warmed to body temperature. A solution that's too cold can cause vertigo, nausea, or pain; solution that's too warm can burn the eardrum."

Thanks for your input. :)

[boggle, ASN, RN]

You bet! Cold ear drops can make 'em vomit pretty quickly!! Be kind, get those eardrops up to or slightly warmer than body temp.

[KRVRN, BSN, RN]

Never warmed ear drops before, but I found out the hard way what happens when you put alcohol-based ear drops in a post-op ear surgery pt's ears! I was a student at the time and hadn't a clue what the problem was...