My daughter is in her mid-teens, and has tears in her eyes because she
has an earache, which I don't even remember her ever having as alittle
kid. She's almost never sick, so she doesn't handle this stuff well.
Since the doctors are all closed, a friend who is a nurse-practitioner
gave us a 3-day regimen of some antibiotic and the wife went to
Walgreens to get something they call "sweet oil" which I figure is
just glycerine. That, plus a dose of ibuprofen, I figure is the best
you can do. And the ole' heating pad on the head, of course.
Honestly, I don't ever remember having this myself. For some reason,
I think they used to blow smoke in your ear. How this could help, I
have no idea.