When your child has an ear infection the standard procedure is to take them to the doctor for antibiotics. Many parents today and some doctors are taking a wait and see approach to this common childhood illness. Some parents say that using pain relievers and a warm bath works just as well. Some actually get the antibiotics but then don’t use them.
Many doctors are also forgoing ear antibiotics, especially for kids under the age of 2. Most ear infections will actually clear up on their own without medical intervention. Antibiotics work on for bacterial infections but some of the bacteria that causes ear infections have grown resistant to the antibiotics prescribed today. Not to mention that some infections are not caused by bacteria but are caused by a virus and doctors really don’t know whether a virus or bacteria is the culprit so most prescribe antibiotics and hope for the best.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, since 2004, has recommended that physicians follow a course of pain medication and follow through with antibiotics only if the child’s condition does not get better. A resent study found that the use of antibiotics should be used only if the child is under 2 and the infection is in both ears. They also agreed that watching is a better course of action than prescribing antibiotics initially.
Critics feel that not prescribing antibiotics may cause further damage to a child’s hearing but according to the researchers there’s nothing to support these fears. The main course of action a parent can take is to alleviate the child’s pain and make them as comfortable as possible. Then if the condition does not improve, the doctor can prescribe antibiotics.
Maybe we have become a nation of parents who over-medicate our kids. I don’t recall ever taking any prescribed medicine when I was a kid. I do recall my mother gaving me those orange-flavored baby aspirin (even after I was long past the baby stage). It wasn’t that I was never sick but she seemed to always have some home remedy to give us kids. There was always some weird elixir that seemed to cure just about whatever ailed us. I still remember the funky taste of cod liver oil! That was a staple in our house along with a few more concoctions. We went to the doctor once a year for an annual check up and that was it. And you know what, we were pretty darned healthy.
See also:
Finally Some Common Sense In The Use Of Antibiotics
Is It Okay To Email My Child’s Pediatrician?