Ear aches......what to do? (Advice appreciated)

So today my youngest has an earache! Of course in usual child fashion, he did not tell his mama until it got really bad. Why? Because last time he had an ear infection, he was not allowed to go in the ocean for a month.

This month he wants to get up close and personal with the ocean, therefore, he refrained from mentioning it till it really hurt!!! Silly boy! So here I sat concerned and wondering, will we have to make that trip to the doctor? (an extreme rarity in our house!)

Last year he had a really bad infection which ended up being treated with 2 lots of antibiotics and ear drops. The doctor seemed to think that the sand at the beach had aggravated the already stressed drum and banned him from the beach and swimming pools for a long time.

One thing I do not like to mess around with is ears. I have had children with burst ear drums and it is not pleasant. I do however not like the thought of having to give them anti-biotics if I can get out of it. 

I know I have not gone into my explanation of how things work for me healing wise but in short, I can basically feel in my own ear what he is feeling, to a certain extent. I feel like there is fluid build up and pressure pushing outwards. Giving me the urge to reach my fingers into the ear and pull something out! Water in his ear? Bulging ear drum?

Anyways, last night I sat and thought "what shall I give him?"

I could feel the fluid build up in  my ear and immediately thought of a soothing oil. However, I thought I would consult the books and Yarrow was one I had not tried before. It said if you put some mashed yarrow in the ear drum it will help. I called him and handed him a small mashed portion which he immediately placed in his ear with some cotton wool to keep it firm and warm.  He noted after a while that it did not really make any difference and later discarded it in favour of some ear drops. (We have also tried garlic cloves previously but if the ear is already quite sore it tends to burn so I opted not to use that this time).

I also in my own fashion thought to make some soothing tea. 2 teaspoons chamomile, 1 teaspoon of  yarrow, 1 teaspoon elder flowers, a few fresh torn leaves of lemon balm and 3 teaspoons of honey wondering the whole time if he would actually drink it!

He actually quite liked it. He drank one small glass hot and then took the rest of the pot up to his room in a sippy cup! LOL! I was hoping this mixture would make him sweat out any germs during the night and soothe away any pain. He did sleep but woke in the morning and said it still hurts, but he is keen to try drinking the tea mix as he felt better when he drank it. 

So I will see how it goes today and whether or not it helps. He has been taking paracetemol as well for pain.

Anyway, any advice from those of you with more herbal experience would be much appreciated. I am going mostly on instinct rather than knowledge. :-)