Symptom Checker

  • When to seek medical advice

  • Seek medical care if your child has an earache that lasts longer than a day or is accompanied by:

    • Discharge of blood or pus from the ear
    • Fever above 101 F (38.3 C)
    • Pulling or scratching at the ears, except as an observed self-soothing habit
    • Not responding normally to sounds
    • Impaired or decreased speech
    • Sleeplessness and painful crying in infants during or after a cold or upper respiratory illness

Mayo Clinic Health Manager

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Earache

Find possible causes of earache based on specific factors. Check one or more factors on this page that apply to your symptom.

  • Change in air pressure

  • Cold or upper respiratory illness

  • Injury or trauma

  • Touching or moving outer ear, except as an observed self-soothing habit

  • Bleeding from ear

  • Clear or pus-filled drainage

  • Dizziness

  • Feeling of fullness in ear

  • Fever

  • Redness or swelling of outer ear

  • Ringing in the ear

 

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