Recently we noticed a foul smell coming from our two month old son's left ear. At the same time we noticed a white substance towards the outer part of the ear canal (thats as far in as we could see) and also yellow marks on the sheets he sleeps on. The same day we noticed all this we began treating it with garlic ear drops (Gaia brand with mullein). We treated it for 7 to 8 days, 2 to 3 times a day. It's been 2 to 3 days since we stopped treating it and today the white substance and smell is back. We had to take our son to the doc for his 2 month visit anyway, so we asked the doc to look at his ear. He said he could see a white substance in the ear too and it was making it difficult to see the ear drum. I should also mention that it doesn't appear that our son is experiencing any pain in his left ear. We can push and pull the ear and around the ear and he doesn't react.
Any opinions on this topic?
Originally we thought maybe he got an outer ear infection (swimmers ear) from having him in the shower with us (we do this instead of baths) and maybe we didn't allow his ear to drain properly.
We plan to either continue treating it with the Gaia ear drops or maybe with breastmilk this time. But we're wondering how long we should treat this? We thought 7 to 8 days would be long enough, but apparently not.

I dont know if this will help, but my dd was about 3 or 4 months old when she had this strange discharge in her outer ear. it was white, i dont know if it had an odor though. Anyway... i took her in and it was eczema! crazy place for it! but it went away with the steroid cream. i dont know if the garlic drops hlep with that?
just and idea, b/c i know you said you went to the pedi. i hope you figureit out soon.

How did they determine it was eczema? Did they have to do a culture with some of the discharge?

the dr that we saw then just looked at her ear and said that was it. (this was long befor i questioned anything they were saying!) but i do remember it being a bit flaky looking.