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No Antibiotics for Most Earaches |
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Groups to Urge No Antibiotics for Most Earaches in Children
Wall Street Journal 3/3/04
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Practice are to formally recommend that doctors stop treating most middle ear infections in children with antibiotics. About 80% of children will recover on their own without drugs, according to the Center for Disease Control. Antibiotics will only be used if it’s truly acute otitis media and not every abnormal-appearing ear. Medical studies have found that drugs do very little for a child’s ear infection pain. Common painkillers such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen may be used instead of antibiotics (except in severe cases).
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