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Treating ear infections
 Will
my baby have to take antibiotics for an ear infection?
About half of all ear infections resolve themselves without antibiotics.
It's up to you and your child's pediatrician to decide which course
of treatment to take — watchful waiting or prescription drugs.
Roughly three years ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics revised
their guidelines for children ages 1 to 3. They now suggest doctors
withhold antibiotics if there's fluid without any sign of fever
or infection. Today, many healthcare providers are exercising caution
because more and more bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics.
(Drug companies used to stay one step ahead of the mutations by
continually introducing new drugs, but they can't keep up.) So you
can also help by not requesting antibiotics for every ear infection.
What comfort measures can I offer my baby until we see a doctor?
Acetaminophen (infant Tylenol), ear numbing drops, or oil drops
can help ease your baby's pain and discomfort. You might also try
placing a warm, wrung-out wash cloth against your child's ear. Antihistamines
and decongestants may help a small number of children whose ear
problems stem from allergies. Before offering any over-the-counter
remedies to your child, check with your healthcare provider.
My baby's had five ear infections and he's not even a year old
yet. Is there anything I can do to prevent them?
If your baby's prone to recurring ear infections, and you're spending
more and more time in the doctor's office and have a refrigerator
full of antibiotics that didn't work, you may want to talk to your
pediatrician about performing a tympanostomy by inserting ventilation
tubes into your baby's ears. The procedure can be uncomfortable
for a baby and some doctors don't believe in it, but it can help
in certain instances. The tubes help fluid in the inner ear drain
which will decrease the chance of ear infections. Usually the procedure
is done on an outpatient basis. The tubes will be removed when the
eustchian tubes mature, around the child's fifth birthday and fluid
build-up isn't as much as a problem.
Do homeopathic remedies and other types of alternative medicine
make a difference?
Some parents and their children have found homeopathic remedies,
which use minute amounts of naturally derived substances to stimulate
the immune system, helpful. The American Academy of Pediatrics doesn't
endorse any of these methods, but some doctors are beginning to
study them, and some parents swear by them. Taly Shapiro, of Berkeley,
California, knows firsthand the benefits of homeopathic remedies:
"When my firstborn, Elijah, was a baby, he had so many ear
infections that his pediatrician suggested we have tubes placed
in his ears to help drain them. The whole idea frightened me, so
I did some reading and found that homeopaths were having some success
treating ear infections. I took Elijah to see one, and we were sent
home with a remedy. I don't know if Elijah just hit a point where
he outgrew [ear infections] or the remedy worked, but he's 5 now,
and he has never had another ear infection."
FYI: You don't need to empty your wallet to treat your child's
ear infection, says a study in Pediatrics. Expensive antibiotics
are not necessarily better at curing the infections than less expensive
ones, such as amoxicillin. For example, in 1992, say researchers
from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver,
"if half of the more expensive prescriptions were written for
amoxicillin instead, the Medicaid program would have realized savings
of $399,412."
http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/baby/babyills/babyearinfections/2010.html
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