Trying natural remedies

It seems like every time we are in vacay from school one of my kids gets some kind of sickness. From  approx. 30 min spent in our new hot tub the other day, Mia appears to have come down with swimmers ear or a bacterial ear infection. She has been complaining about ear pain for 2 days now and on my quest to have a healthier, less chemically dependent family, I have been searching for natural, home remedies to our spring break ear infection. Here's what I have come up with. Garlic has natural antiseptic and anti inflammatory qualities. When you use antibiotics for ear infection, they also get rid of good bacteria which is why you should never use antibiotics until absolutely nessesary in my opinion. After all of my googling, here's the natural remedy I chose to go with...really a mixture of several that I came across.
A little olive oil
A little garlic oil/juice
-mix together in a coffee cup and heat for a very short time. Just enough to make warm
-fill a clean wash cloth or sock with some salt (I used natural sea salt)
-poor a touch of the oil/garlic mix into the ear
-run the salt sock under hot water for a sec, just so it's damp (not too hot, you don't want to burn the child, but warm enough that the heat will provide some relief. )
-dip the wet sock in the rest if the oil/garlic mix then place over the ear. This will allow some of the warm mixture to slowly drop into the ear also. It was more of me not wanting to waste what was left and the salt trick was another remedy I had found. The warm salt apparently can ease the pain, it's an anti inflammatory and it can help draw out fluids!
Getting Mia  to do all of this voluntarily would be a nightmare (although I will have to do it with her awake tomorrow) so for now, I waited till the princess slept, and then violated her ear. We will see if it works!
Everything I read said to do this 3 times a day for 24-48 hours. If it doesn't help by then, I will have to call a doctor!
*please note that I am not telling anyone not to seek medical treatment or that they should try this themselves. Untreated ear infections can cause hearing loss so please seek advise from your doctor!!
***AND NOW FOR A DRINK (tonight I will sip on a glass of Moscato that my sister brought me the other day!) Cheers to all your drinking MOM-ents today!!!