Wow, pretty interesting, Nora. Yes, my brother and myself used to have awful earaches when we were little. The doctor made special eardrops for us because the stuff at the drugstore didn't help us. My earaches eventually faded away to only occasional ones, but I guess I must have passed it on to Matthew who started having bad ear infections when he was a few months old.
Strangely (this just popped in my mind, but I doubt that it has anything to do with earaches/infections... although they do say the throat is linked to the ears) when I was little I also used to get swollen glands at least twice a year (for sure in the spring and autumn). Then when I was about 16 the swollen glands stopped, and were replaced (also at least twice a year) with strep-throat and laryngitis. I still get those once in a while, but not half as often as I used to.
Gem