Ear Infection Antibiotics

Antibiotics or no antibiotics. That's always the big question when your child has an ear infection.

Ear infections can be tough on children, but they are also tough to deal with as parents. Years ago, ear infections used to all be treated with antibiotics. But guidelines posted back in 2004 by the American Academy of Pediatrics had us start a watchful waiting period in children with ear infections since they felt most might not need antibiotics anyway and we were over treating those we did prescribe it for. But now they are taking a more middle ground with new updates to this same guideline.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics ear infections are still getting over treated with antibiotics. It turns out that for more cases of ear infections in children, 2 out of 3 of them will get better on their own. But these new guidelines better define which children need treatment right away and which ones can wait on antibiotics for 3 days to see if they do indeed get better on their own.

The overall goal is to better treat ear infections, but at the same time make sure children aren't getting antibiotics when they don't need them, especially since antibiotics like all medicines, can have side effects and at least in the case of an ear infection might not be needed in every case.