No antibiotics for ear infections?
Here's Betsy of Fluffy Windover's Diary in this week's Toddler Thursday:
Yesterday Edwin was miserable with a cold. He was coughing, whining, and spent most of the day on the couch. He even fell asleep on the couch. Before nap time. This may not seem strange to you, but believe me it is way out of character for this kid. He fights sleep at every turn, so he must have felt pretty awful.
He also was complaining that his ear hurt. Ah, the dreaded toddler ear infection. Edwin has been treated with antibiotics for ear infections twice before. Each time he had had a cold, then woke up with some discharge in one of his ears (though he didn’t complain of ear pain either time, he did have a fever so I took him to the pediatrician). Also each time, his pediatrician said, “Eh, not sure if it’s infected but it looks a little funky so we’ll go ahead and treat it.” 10 days of antibiotics. No fun for anyone, especially when his most recent round of amoxicillin left him with a bad case of hives.
I’m not anti-antibiotics. I know that most bacterial illnesses require treatment with antibiotics, and I always follow my pediatrician’s advice. But soon after Edwin’s second ear infection, I read an article stating that most uncomplicated ear infections clear up without antibiotics (http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/health/medical/pediatrics/2010-11-17-earinfections17_st_N.htm). What’s more, the risks of side effects from antibiotics (diarrhea, rashes) may outweigh the benefit in some cases of ear infections.
Today Edwin seems better; he has no fever and hasn’t mentioned his ear. If his fever comes back and he complains about his ear, I’ll probably take him into the doc. But I’m curious—have any of you parents ever decided to forego antibiotics for an ear infection and just treat the symptoms?
Comments
My first child had an ear infection at 4 months and he needed the antibiotics--he had pus coming out his ear. The second kid has never been diagnosed with one. When she complained of ear pain a few months ago and I called her doctor, he said to give it a few days. She was fine and I never had to take her in.
Personally, the last time I had a bad cold, I woke up in the middle of the night with incredible ear pain. I couldn't even lay my head on the pillow. Tylenol and a warm compress helped so much, the pain was gone by morning.
Posted by: Kayris | March 3, 2011 8:12 AM
It depends on how bad it is. Children tend to get them the most often during the period of time when they are actively developing their speech. When our son was 3, he failed a hearing screening and it was probably due to issues resulting from an ear infection (treated) that he had. We took him to an audiologist and saw that his ear drum was not conducting sound well because of fluid and it took a few weeks to resolve.
My boys never got a 'light' ear infection - they were always very painful but luckily they had 1-2/yr at the most. And luckily we had no side effects from the antibiotics.
Posted by: MadCow | March 3, 2011 9:23 PM
When I was growing up my mom would put onion juice in our ears to get rid of ear infections. We never went on antibiotics for ear infections. My 2 year old son was just diagnosed with an ear infection at his 2 year doctor appointment 11 days ago. The doctor said to give it 10 days without an antibiotic and come back for her to check and make sure it had cleared up on it's own. Of course, I put onion juice in his ear. Why do nothing when I could do something as benign as onion juice to help him get better? We were just at the doctor today and the infection is completely cleared up. Did the onion juice help him heal or was it the time and natural healing process of his body? Not sure, but I'm glad it's gone and I'll use onion juice for any future infections we get and use antibiotics as back up if the natural method doesn't work. Apparently there has been some new information out in the medical community that most ear infections (non-serious) clear up on their own in a few days.
Posted by: Genelle | March 3, 2011 9:42 PM
My 7 month old just got a prescription for her double ear infection yesterday. After her vomiting 4 times in the last 24 hours I am stopping them after only 4 doses. This is my second child and it took me until my first was 18 months old before I gave it the "wait and see" approach. I am upset with myself for putting my 7 month old through this because really - the affects of the antibiotics have been far worse than the ear infection itself.
Posted by: Bren | March 5, 2011 7:32 PM