You might be amused to learn that I own the Onions page on Facebook. It started as a joke, but I really do LOVE onions!
Onions, or Allium cepa, are an excellent home remedy for a variety of conditions, including otitis media, the common “ear infection”. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otitis_media). A wonderful thing about many home remedies is that they are simple, safe, inexpensive and often effective. If you catch the infection early and treat it at home, you may be able to avoid a visit to the doctor. I did a quick internet search on using onions for ear infections and found a variety of potential techniques, some amusing, some probably useless, others possibly helpful- but here is the one I learned in medical school.
The Main Point: Cut an onion in half and warm it up to a comfortable temperature.
You don’t need to peel it, but you might want to move a tough outer covering. If both ears may be affected, use both halves of the onion. If not, use only ½. To warm the onion, I put it in the oven at 350 for 10 minutes or so, but you may choose to briefly steam or microwave the onion. Don’t get it too hot, you want it at a comfortable temperature to hold near your ear without burning yourself. You may need to let it cool down if you heat the onion up too much.
Then wrap the base of the onion in a small towel or washcloth so you can hold it easily. Get comfortable, and hold the onion near your ear so that the medicinal fumes will travel into your ear and so the heat can reach your ear. As the onion cools, you may hold it directly against your ear. It should feel very soothing and warm. You can keep it there as long as it feels good—usually this is until it is no longer warm. Unlike reported in one amusing YouTube video, there shouldn’t be any sound coming from the onion. Please do NOT use an onion ear-muff as shown in this video! It’s safe to use an “Onion Ear Muff” as often as you like, even several times a day. This is a great idea when you first notice symptoms of an infection, or as an adjunct to other treatments recommended by your health care provider.
How does it work? The fumes from the onion will contain various bioactive compounds that will waft directly into the infected ear. There is no research using onions for ear infections. Onions have been found in a wide variety of research to have potent medicinal actions that may be helpful for ear infections, including anti-inflammatory benefits and antimicrobial activity against a wide variety of bacteria and fungi. I did not find any research on viruses. Viruses and bacteria are two very common causes of ear infections. If you’re a fellow nerd, you may want to investigate the following Pub Med citations for more details on the antimicrobial activity of Allium cepa: PMID 22169018, 21755238, 2140609, 20571171, 20486078, 21702293, 22073470, 16716908, 19127724.