My son is 16 months old and mostly a happy baby. He has been having cold on and off through out this severe winter. For the past 10 days he has been having another bout of cold & cough. His cough seemed to be getting better and he has been sleeping better through the night for the past few days. But this morning he woke up really fussy and cried in pain for more than an hour tugging at his ear and hitting his head. He did not have a temperature but I still feared ear infection and took him to the doctor. As suspected, both his ears are red inside and showing some swelling. He has been prescribed antibiotics. As we all know the side effects of antibiotics, I am very concerned about diarrhea followed by rash etc. He has a sensitive stomach and with every teeth, we have gone through the diarrhea-rash-no appetite-crankiness struggle. Just the thought of it is giving me nightmares. Currently, he is playing, being his normal self, so I am thinking of waiting to start the antibiotic and use tylenol or mortrin to relieve pain as he is not yet running a temperature. The doctor said I could do it as some early detected ear infection in otherwise healthy kids have a chance of curing on its own. I am still concerned and confused and hoping that I am taking the right decision. Has anyone consciously waited on antibiotics for ear infection? Thank you for any input.
Yes, ear infections can cure without antibiotics. But very important is to monitor the situation and also do a check-up after 1-2 weeks to ensure that it is gone. Sometimes ear infections can cause problems to the hearing if not treated so that is why the check-up important. Ear infections are a common problem after a cold as the cold congest the airways. Here is a quite good article: Ear Infections-Topic Overview
i think ear infection is very painful. this winter has been really tough on my tough-nuts. They both had a round of antibiotics. If it is mild it will go away by itself, but otherwise you have to give them antibiotics + lots and lots of yogurt.
Thank you for taking the time to respond. My LO was able to fight it so far without antibiotics. He did have some discharge as mentioned on the link but has been active & happy mostly. I do have a follow-up next week to confirm that he has kicked the infection out.
Hi Mriduna I feel happy to hear that your kiddo recovered with out antibiotics My 10 months has recently recovered from ear infection. She had fever one day which was gone with tylenol. She was okay...but slight cough & cold symptoms were there. Suddenly after many days ( about week) again she had high fever and all crying, fussiness started... slight ear infection..nightmare.. We had to give antibiotics... Keep check on your darling it does not come back...Weather warming up so take him out in sun if possible. In my case, it is I think mere coincidence.. that my baby was full yogurt eater in each meal ..( as someone suggested it helps)..I had stopped temporarily in cold/cough. Days it was warm, we took her out in sun and she got sick specifically on those days :-(
I know this is going to sound odd but since I am a firm believer in chiropractic I will pass it on. One chiropractor told me that kids with recurrent ear infections often have some bone out of alignment in their backs which happens in delivery. It can be easily remedied by a chiropractor. As to taking the antibiotics, you should give B complex vitamins with the antibiotics.
How is your child now? I am interested in knowing whether ear infections can be treated without antibiotics.
He is fine now (knock on wood). We caught it at an early stage and was able to use tylenol, lot of yogurt, rest, sun (thankfully it is warm now) and battle it out. Luckily he was not in too much pain for long to go the antibiotic route and was able to manage with tylenol. Like everything else in parenting, depends on each child and each case.
