To be suprised the DR wanted me to wait??

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My 2.5 yr old woke us up during the night with a scream, was awake for most of the night and was screaming/crying off and on all morning saying his ear hurt. Got an emergency appointment with the dr who agreed he had an ear infection but wasn't "acute" he then gave me a prescription but told me not to fill it for a day or two incase it went on it's own.

I'm sorry but my son has already spent most of the morning crying in pain, why would it be reasonable to expect him to put up with it for another day or two??? AIBU to be surprised by this??

YANBU to be surprised.

HWBU not to explain his reasoning better and HWBU not to prescribe an effective painkiller (assuming it was a script for antibiotics).

Drs are trying to reduce antibiotic prescribing (as we are becoming increasingly resistant to them). Hence what he may have meant was not acute so may go on its own, but alleviate pain with some pain relief but if gets worse or persists use Abx. I have had this happen on 2 occasions - first did get better without abx, second time definitely needed them.

Hope your son is feeling better soon, ear infections are horrid

Oh posted by accident

HWNBU to want to delay the course of antibiotics if the infection is not acute.

If in doubt, get a second opinion.

Was just amoxicillin. DR just seemed to think it might go on it's own.
I admit i thought i'd give it a couple of hours, but after just 5 mins ds was crying again (in shop buying a little treat) and there was no way i was going to wait for longer. When i pointed out that he'd already been crying for most of the morning he grudgingly said that if he does keep crying i could fill it. How nice of him. No suggestion of a painkiller though, so am giving him calpol as well. (urm am assuming is ok to give at the same time.) :)

The current thinking is that ear infections clear up as quickly without antibiotics, therefore, it won't speed up him getting better, nor will it stop the pain, poor lamb. Have you tried using warmed olive oil (look up natural remedies for curing ear ache) I find this really effective. I am not against using antibiotics whenever useful and effective, but it does seem that they are almost pointless for most ear infections. good luck.

YABU

most ear infections clear up by themselves and it's rare for GPs to prescribe ABs for them these days

the anti-bs won't stop the pain for some time anyway so HWBU not to discuss pain relief with you... if you can relieve your DSs pain then you've nothing to lose waiting for a couple of days before giving him the anti-bs (which may upset his gut as well as the general overuse/resistence problem)

Ibuprofen generally better than paracetamol for ear infection.

sorry xposted. he didn't even mention a painkiller, Ds does have a history of ear infections but to be honest i don't tend to take him to the dr everytime as it normally doesn't seem to bother him. He's seeing a specialist cause of glue ear, everytime specialist sees him he has glue ear, but this is the first time in a long time he's shown pain and never this much pain. (glue ears not affecting his hearing/speech though so they don't need to do anything.)

YABU most ear infections are viral and will clear up without antibiotics.

I understand your DS was in pain but the antibiotics won't help that, calpol/nurofen will.

I have found that my ds, who gets alot of earache/infections is hugely relieved by a couple of drops of the warmed olive oil. He almost always drops off to sleep with relief. Haven't taken him to the dr for years since I've done this. I agree with Louii re the ibuprofen, it will reduce the inflammation, as well as dealing with the pain.

Surely you don't need the doctor to tell you to give your child pain relief when they are in pain?

He told me the antib's would help. If he'd discussed painkillers i wouldn't have been suprised about the antib's, or even bothered if he hadn't prescribed them I just wanted something to help him with the pain.

No memoo i don't need that, but if it's better to just use painkillers and not the antibiotics, having no medical training i wouldn't automatically know that would i.

My DS2 was very prone to ear infections first 2-3 yrs.After a bit I didn't bother with GP,as Nurofen given regularly-and Paracetemol for breakthrough pain,was enough to keep wee man settled.They do tend to heal up themselves,and the antib's are a pain to give. Diarrhoea etc.
Give regular pain relief for first few days,as per bottles,even if he seems OK,as this will prevent pain flaring up so much.

so what pain relief were you giving him before the appointment?

humanoctopus sorry to be dim but do i put that on cotton wool?

BTW my ds had repeat ear infection for the first few years of his life. Ask your GP about gommits if they continue, DS had them and he never had another ear infection since

I gave him calpol this morning but it didn't seem to stop the pain.

Also you can give calpol and nurofen at the same time. Hotwater bottle placed against the ear helps too

Apparently they only give grommets if it's affecting their hearing and speech. Which luckily it hasn't been.

nurofen much much better for ear pain, works amazingly well on my DD

Thats rubbish! Not fair that a child has to keep suffering when there is something simple they can do.

My ds got constant ear infections for years. Now that he's older he gets more sophisticated things like bronchitis and pneumonia .
Anyway, I definitely found a change in the philosophy of how to treat over the last 10 years. When he was a baby they just gave him antibiotics without blinking. After a few years they would give me the prescription and suggest I wait and see if it cleared up on its own. However, I was always given ibuprofen (paracetamol doesn't work on ds) and told to give him much higher doses than what's on the label to reduce temperature (when he was younger) and pain (when he was older). It sounds like your gp missed half the instructions in med school. They are supposed to reduce usage of antibiotics for ear infections, but MUST make sure that they alleviate pain or temperature TOO. I am very surprised that you gp did not suggest ibuprofen.

You can alternate with Calpol and Nurofen as the latter doesn't contain paracetamol (always check first though) - check the timings for each, but approx one every 2 or 3 hours up to max doses - check nurofen as think it is a longer time between doses.

My GP used to recommend this for effective pain relief.

ABs won't help with pain.