Anyone not give antibiotics for an ear infection?

Hello everyone!! My daughter had her first ear infection (she is four) roughly three weeks ago and was put on antibiotics. I took her to the doctor the first day she complained of ear pain...(she had 102 fever.) Here we are a few weeks later and she just started complaining about her ear again but doesn't have a fever. I have been reading online about ear infections and read that most ear infections are viral and should clear up on there own. Has anyone found that to be true?? Can they clear up on their own? What did you do to help the situation? I appreciate your help!

 

I don't have any advice but my pedi did tell me (when we were in a few weeks ago for an ear infection) that there is efficacy for using anti-b's for ear infection in kids under 2. She didn't say anything in older kids but the way she said it implied that they weren't very beneficial for kids over 2. Hope someone else can chime in.

 

Not sure. My 4 year old son is on augmentin as of today for a double ear infection and pneumonia. He only complained once of ear pain so I really didn't think anything of it. It was the fever that prompted me to call the doc.

 

I've heard that too. I guess you could just watch it. I did end up with a double EI as a 17 yr old after a flight to LA. Let me just say I'm very grateful for antibiotics! My ears canals swelled shut completely. It was the most sick I've ever been. So I'm not sure I agree with antibiotics not helping children over 2. But who knows? Maybe not.

 

I don't know - I had frequent (rather unnoticed) ear infections in my 20's and now have 40% hearing loss in both ears - I've had infections after that and the abx have always worked...

 

Justin was allergic to the ammox he was given for his first ear infection. The Dr said to just quit giving it to him. He only took it for 2 days. She did not give him anything else.

 

My pediatrician is very conservative when it comes to writing prescriptions for antibiotics. My oldest son is going to be 8 in March and has only been on antibiotics twice in his entire life *knocking wood*. He's had 2 or 3 ear infections over the years (mainly between the ages of 3 and 5) and was never given a prescription for any of them. They did go away on their own. My ped told me each time to bring him back in "..." days if he was still running a fever or complaining of ear pain, but every single time it went away on its own.

 

Personally, if my child is very uncomfortable I would just give them the abx. Ear pain can be EXTREMELY painful. The infection could be viral or bacterial, but often enough it's bacterial and if I can make that pain go away sooner, I will. For me, I try to wait it out, but if it becomes apparent it's very uncomfortable or if it's not going away, I will go ahead and give the abx.

 

One of my boys has had a problem with reoccurring ear infections. I started bringing him to my chiropractor & saw great success.

 

The chiropractor helped some w/ my DD who had recurrent ear infections. My pedi is pretty conservative about abx, too. Like you said, most are viral, so abx don't work... and taking them when unneeded only causes resistance to them for when they are needed, and tends to throw the system out of whack allowing yeast infections to occur. And most viral ear infections clear up in a few days to a week. But if they don't they can cause infections that feed on bacteria, which then get worse and do need abx because if untreated, the eardrum can burst (it's happened twice to that same DD). Ultimately, tubes were what worked the best.

 

The data STRONGLY suggests to wait and see. In a healthy, typically developing child, antibiotics should be held off. Children with speech delays, disabilities, etc.. antibiotics may be needed. My twins have had double ear infections twice in their life and have always gotten through it on their own. Went back to the doctor to get rechecked about 5-7 days later, and the ear infections were cleared up.

Absolutely true that most ear infections are viral and the antibiotics wouldn't be effective. My 6 month old also had a double ear infection 3 weeks ago. I went to the ear, nose, throat doctor and she gave me the option to give her antibiotics or wait. I told her I would wait and get rechecked in a week. To no surprise, the ear infections cleared up.

 

I just asked my pedi about this issue this week. He said that a kid CAN have ear pain without an infection (allergies, irritation, etc) and the symptoms can mimic an ear infection so waiting and seeing for 48 hours can be done. BUT kids with infection symptoms like drainage or high fever should be treated.
I asked about the studies that questioned the efficacy of abx for EI and he said that information has come to light that the researchers didn't test to make sure that the kids in the study truly had infections so its unclear what caused the kids who didn't get abx to feel better, could have just been lower pollen counts or any number of factors.

 

I never take my child to the doctor unless there is a fever. So if they are complaining of ear aches and there has been no fever I usually take the wait and see approach. If they keep complaining, then I will take them in. I don't like to have my kids on antibiotics unless necessary. I have even taken my kids into the doctor and had the doc write them a script and just held onto it to see how they were in a day or two as well--when they have colds and such. Earaches, though, I won't mess around with if there is a fever. I, too, suffered from hearing loss as a child and constant ear infections, so if a fever exists then I will immediately give them the antibiotics.

 

Here is the full-text journal article. It's stated here to observe or "wait and see" most children with ear infections. Again, these are normal typically-developing, healthy children. It's a long read but very well worth it.
http://www.aafp.org/online/etc/medialib/aa...at/OMEFinal.pdf

 

I like the diagnosis of EI but I don't automatically treat with abx. If my child is comfortable with ibuprofen then I'll use that and hold off on the abx. Over december school break I had 7 infected ears in my house (between 4 kids). 2 of them (the babies) ended up taking the abx and the older two took ibuprofen. My 5 year complained of pain (relieved by the ibuprofen) for about 3 days and my 8 year old took ibuprofen once.

 

Thank you to everyone for your responses. Even though my kids are 4, I have never had to deal with ear infections until now. My daughter is doing much better and I used the 'wait and see approach.' Thanks again!