14 Effective Home Remedies for Swimmers Ear

Swimmers ear affects 200,000 Americans each year. It is an infection of the outer ear canal. The outer ear canal goes from the eardrum to the head. Swimmers ear is caused by water remaining in the ear after swimming or washing your hair. This moist environment allows bacteria to grow. Swimmers ear can also occur when you put cotton swabs, fingers, or other objects in the ear.

This will damage the thin layer of skin that lines the ear canal. When you get swimmers ear, there are home remedies that will work, if you haven’t done any major damage to the ear canal. When it comes to healing swimmers ear, you have to be patient. When you try home remedies it takes a while for them to start working, especially if you’re ear is clogged up. Once you get rid of swimmers ear, you’ll need to take precautions to keep it from happening again.

1. Rubbing alcohol

Rubbing alcohol is a home remedy that will work for swimmers ear. Take a dropper and place a little bit of alcohol into it. Depending on which ear is affected, lean your head towards the opposite side. Place three drops of the alcohol into your head. It will burn. You might hear it bubbling as well.

Try to keep your head in this position for a few minutes. If you can, lie down when you do this, so you can keep your head positioned in one place. After a few minutes, lift your head upright. The water should start to drain out.

If not, you’ll have to repeat the steps again, but not right away. Wait an hour before you try it again. Sometimes when the remedy doesn’t work right away, it’ll work on its own. The ear canal may clear up on its own while the alcohol is absorbing all of the water.