Brief Answer: seems benign Detailed Answer: Hello and welcome to Health care magic, I am Dr Sriram Nathan an ENT surgeon and I shall try to help you out with your problem. At the offset let me assure you that since the ears are the only place where your daughter gets the bruise and since they go away from time to time, you have nothing to worry about. Just for your consideration, you may adhere to these: 1. Ear cartilage and canal are very delicate structures so that even a minor trauma such as a pillow or bed which is hard can cause these rashes. So make sure that she is not turning or putting much pressure on her lobes when she is sleeping. 2. Make sure her pillows and mattress are very soft and not the hard ones. You can even suggest her to sleep straight and not on one side and see if this helps. 3. Make sure that when she is sleeping she removes all her ear rings if she has any so that they do not cause any pressure induced trauma. Also if her ears are pierced then use only pure gold non reactive ear rings. If her ears are not pierced then you do not have to worry about this. 4. Let her not get exposed to extremes of cold and heat and her face and ear should never be in the direct blast of the AC or the fan 5. You may also get a soft cloth such as velvet pad which she can use to cover her ear especially when she sleeps and see if this helps 6. Apply a moistening lotion such as vaseline when she goes to sleep and see if that helps 7. I am also assuming that she is presently not on any medication like pain killers or steroids which are also associated with these bruises. 8. Laslty and most importantly, do not rub or meddle with the ear as I mentioned earlier, they are very sensitive structures. Finally, if the bruise is definitely having a cylce of coming and going then you have nothing to worry about. However if the bruise stays on permanently and comes in other areas and or comes more frequently then you must consult both your ENT as well as your dermatologist. In any case if the bruise does not get better by the above instructions in a week or two then I would suggest a full blood work up including bleeding profile and rheumatoid factor measurement. You may get back to me or any ENT surgeon with the reports. Hope your doubts are clear and I will be happy to help you out if you have any more doubts regards Dr Sriram Nathan

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