Ear Infections – When Do They Need Antibiotics?
When my girls were two and four, I took them to an urgent care clinic one weekend after their fevers — which had been gone for two days following dual ear infections — suddenly spiked. I wasn’t looking for antibiotics, I was looking for reassurance that they hadn’t developed something nasty. What I got was a stern lecture on antibiotic abuse, a pamphlet repeating the lecture, and a bill for $50.
I was annoyed — he didn’t even examine my kids, after all, and he was really condescending. But that hard line on antibiotic use seems to taming our country’s unhealthy habit of prescribing antibiotics for what’s usually a viral illness.
With cold and flu season just around the corner, it’s a good time to review exactly when to see your doctor when your child develops an ear infection.
While we’ve known for a while that antibiotics don’t really do much good for respiratory infections, it’s a little harder to convince a concerned parent that ear infections will also usually resolve on their own, as well. Many doctors now hands out scripts, but asks parents not to fill them unless the kids get worse.
So when should you be concerned about an ear infection? As always, consult your doctor first. But in many cases, treating with pain reliever for a few days might be all that is necessary. Here are some warning signs that something more sinister is going on:
- fever of 100.4 or higher
- discharge or pus from the ears
- worsening of symptoms
Babies under three months always need to see a doctor when they develop a fever. For more on treating ear infections, visit the CDC’s website on otitis media.
Photo: Jyn Meyer, sxc.hu
Ugh. I got that lecture – brought the lil’ Dude in for what I suspected (and wanted confirmation of) was the croup. Let her finish and said “I don’t WANT antibiotics if its the croup. I just want to know that is ALL it is and nothing more. Good lord, I know antibiotics don’t work on a virus!”
And yet, when my son was about one we did some ‘watchful waiting’ on his serial ear infections followed by several courses of antibiotics which resulted in a severe hearing loss in both ears for months and eventually surgery to place tubes in his ears. His surgeon described his Eustachian tubes as being filled with rubber cement.
Another hearing loss, another set of tubes and now we take speech once a week ($1000/month.. thank God for insurance) and we watch his ears closely.
MY advice: if your young child has repeat ear infections but your doctor doesn’t want to proscribe antibiotics, ask for a tympanogram (it measures the movement of the ear drum and can determine if hearing is compromised due to fluid) now with a follow up one in two weeks. Losing your hearing at this age is quite damaging to language development