Why wait? Studies have shown that most ear infections are self correcting if left alone. See waiting. Waiting gives the body a chance to build up its own resistance to the infection.

When are antibiotics really needed? Current studies suggest (for most cases) a period of watchful waiting for about 3- 4 days. Signs of infection (high temperature, bulging ear drum, redness of ear canal, fussiness) can be monitored regularly at home. If improvement is not evident after several days, then antibiotics might be the best course of action. You and your medical provider will have to make a judgment call.

With an Earscope you can minimize the risk of a ruptured ear drum by watching the progression (or regression) of an infection. Changes in the appearance of the ear drum will give you indications of the pressure behind the drum so that you will know better when to get medical help. Avoiding ruptures prevents ear drum scarring but is not a life-threatening situation. Most ear drums grow back quite rapidly, as they do after the removal of ear tubes.

It may seem easier in the short run to get antibiotics right away, but it is likely that you will have fewer problems later on if you wait to see if the body heals itself. With most ear infections it does. You can watch the progress with your Earscope. You then run less risk of your child developing resistant bacteria, an alarming problem.

Complications

But you must watch conditions carefully. While not common, serious complications of ear infections can happen. If ear pain is accompanied by any redness, tenderness, pain, or swelling around the bones behind the ears (mastoiditis), or if there is persistent headache (older kids can tell you), stiff neck, or continued vomiting (meningitis), get medical attention fast. If you have any concern that your child might have something other than an ear infection, call your medical provider and describe the symptoms.

Sometimes fluid in the middle ear (serous otitis media or 'SOM') can cause hearing loss. Following a cold and with a clogged Eustachian tube, fluid can fill the middle ear cavity behind the eardrum. Often this condition has few symptoms, is difficult to see with an otoscope, and can persist for months. If both ears are affected, and hearing loss lasts longer than 3 months, it can affect language development, especially in kids from 1 to 3 years old.

If this same middle ear fluid gets infected it often leads to the familiar sharp pain and eardrum stress and redness associated with acute otitis media (AOM) when the body defenses try to deal with the infection.

To confuse the issue further, not all ear pain nor even inflammation is caused by infection, not all infection is caused by bacteria, and not all bacterial infections need antibiotics. Waiting helps sort some of this out.

The threats of mastoiditis and meningitis (now rare) and possible hearing loss are the reasons why providers are so cautious and tend to overprescribe antibiotics. These are also the reasons why you should seek medical advice, but all of these conditions take time to develop in kids older than infants.

We recommend that you find a physician who is willing to work with you to show you how to effectively monitor your children ears at home, using an earscope. As a parent, you can become more familiar with the condition of your child ears than a doctor who only checks them infrequently. You will thus be able to inform the doctor as to the onset and progress of any problems.