Third antibiotic in a week!!

[mumofone83]

Hi all,

Having a terrible time with my DS (16mths) at the minute. I'll start last Monday, when we went to the GP with crusty eyes, especially in the morning. He diagnosed conjunctivitis and prescribed antibiotic eye drops. I asked him to check his throat as he had choked a few times in the last week, which I was worried about. Throat was fine, apparently.

Then the next day we noticed his ear was weeping pus, it was 7pm and the GP was closed so we took him to the local walk in clinic. Ear infection diagnosed, and Amoxicillin 3x/day prescribed. Over the next few days this seemed to improve slightly, but he still had a fever on and off so we administered Calpol and Nurofen when required.

However on Saturday he was off food completely and that evening his temperature went very high (40C) and Calpol/Nurofen wouldn't keep it down. So we returned to the walk in clinic, but they referred us to paediatric A&E.

6h later (2am!) and DS is diagnosed with a serious case of Tonsillitis, which they said was causing the fever, not the ears. They were extremely reluctant to let us go home as his temperature was so high, but eventually after a combined dose of paracetamol and ibuprofen and with stripping him off to just his nappy, it did come down and we were allowed home, with instructions to stop taking the Amoxicillin (4 days into a 7-day course) and take newly-prescribed Penecillin V 4x/day instead.

Since Sunday, he has been a lot better, temperature has remained normal and he is eating again. However, this morning his right ear is weeping pus again, even worse than before. Back to the GP this afternoon and he tells us that he has the ear infection again, and the pus is coming from a perforated eardrum. He said that the Penecillin will not treat his ear infection and so he wants us to stop the Penecillin (4 days into a 10 day course) and start administering Erthromycin 4x/day instead, which he says will treat both the tonsillitis and the ear infection.

I want to trust the professionals, I really do. But they missed the throat infection twice now and seem to be employing a "trial and error" approach with antibiotics. Shouldn't they have done a swab test to see what type of infection is causing throat / ear problems?

Any advice appreciated!!

[TrollsAgain]

Oh bless him!!
I have no clue about Erthromycin but I'm surprised amoxicillin didn't help
My GP always told me that in the case of ear infection they give both antibiotics ear drops AND oral antibiotics
So maybe if it's still bad tomorrow you can ask for the ear drops as well?
Also my GP told me to put a warm towel on top of infected ear.. It apparently helps kill the infection. You could call 111 to see if that's ok?

[TrollsAgain]

Meant the 'heat' helps kill the infection

[IwillrunIwillfly]

My advice (which you can obviously feel free to ignore!) would be to keep taking the penv and see how the ear goes. Bacterial tonsillitis won't get better on its own, but the guidelines now don't recommend antibiotics for most ear infections as they are most often viral, or by the time the antibiotics kick the ear would have got better itself. The ear drum bursting looks very dramatic but it should help the pain now and it's better to get all that pus out! You can gently clean around the outside of the ear but don't be tempted to put anything inside. Ears are really good at cleaning themselves out!

Not to gp bash but I'd trust the paediatrician over the gp here. If he's still not better at the end of the course of penv maybe go back and see him but otherwise I'd stick to the hospitals plan and if in doubt call the unit you were seen in. Hope he's better soon.

[Haudyerwheesht]

Agree with iwillrun I'd be more concerned with treating the throat.