I want to cry when I remember this, too. We had some friends visit us from Ohio a few years ago. Their toddler was getting "yet another ear infection"...
Well, the dad of those two are "like us here at CZ" and the mom - not so much.
Tim allowed me to put a fews drops of CS into his son's ear while he held him sideways.
Within minutes Luke stopped crying.
Two hours later Luke started crying again. When I came around with the bottle in my hand he pulled my hand closer to his little ear. I put in about 4 drops again...again, he stopped crying fairly soon - and on it went.
When they went home, the mom didn't buy any CS...and her own mom convinced her to get tubes surgically put into the kid's ears anyway.