Ear perforation Dr saying no to antibiotics???

[girliefriend]

My dd is 6yo and has a long history of ear problems, has had 2 sets of grommits, the last set inserted about 18mos ago.

Anyway this latest ear infection is in her right ear and started last Saturday when she blew her nose and we both heard a loud pop!

She was in a lot of pain and was unwell generally, sore throat, mild temp etc.

She saw the Dr on Tuesday who basically said the ear drum had perforated and all the evidence suggested giving antibiotics is pointless although did do a px for them and said to give them if she spikes another temp which she hasn't.

She has had a brown, smelly discharge constantly streaming out of that ear and is still generally unwell in an off colour not very happy kind of a way. She has been off school all week.

So wwyd? Should I get the antibiotics?

TIA.

This has happened many, many times to my DS2 (3.5) too. You both have my sympathy.
In the last two years he has had 13 lots of antibiotics for ear infections and or burst eardrums. It drives me mad - though we are in France and they are much happier giving out antibiotics for anything at all (imo) Since Christmas I made a decision not to take him to the Dr as I really don't want more drugs, he has an infection at the moment (though it hasn't burst yet) there is no difference at all as far as I can tell to when he has them.
So I would say no, don't have them, they make little or no difference.
I've been trying to reduce dairy, and build up his immune system with pro-biotics, though I can't say yet if it helps or not. Apparantly, they do generally grow out of ear infections at around 7 as the ear canals tend to become more vertical than horizontal iyswim
Good luck whatever you decide to do.

Thanks its always good to know we are not alone! I have lost count of how many courses of antibiotics dd has had in last couple of years feels like hundreds it is very disheartening and obviously not nice seeing dd in pain Might ring the Dr tomos as her ear in very smelly which I haven't noticed to this extent before - have you ever noticed a smell?!!

Dd not a massive milk fan so doesn't have loads of diary and I have been giving her a multivitamin but it feels never ending...............................

Another one here!

My dd is 18 months and currently have 10 perforations in 10 months (same ear) :( she's been given abs every time so far and they do work but doc is reluctant to refer her to ENT and I don't understand why?

Nicknacks - I would really push for a referral. We had the same problem with DD2, in the end we got her referred for asthma (which she does not have!) and the consultant at the hospital re-referred her to ENT

Unfortunately it had been left too long to put a grommet in, her ear was too badly perforated that was a year ago, we don't think that the drum will ever heal and we are still waiting to find out what the longterm impact on her hearing is.

Op- rather than anti-biotics, I would push for another ENT referral

Thanks. Perhaps I'll book another appt (whilst she's well) and insist this time. She's already been referred by HV to audiology because fears her hearing was affected and always fails in right ear. Red flags are already here aren't they? :(

Ds gets antibiotics with perforations, although that might be partually that he tends to then have the other one burst if he doesn't

However the doctor did say once that they needed to start within 24 hours, so it may be that if you leave it there's less point.

They don't anymore. Ds3 ended up in hospital after a seizure from two ear infections and perforations. The paeds were very clear that they will not give antibs for perforated ear drums -unless infection is ongoing and swabbed. There is quite a lot of evidence to back this approach.

In our family both ds1 ands ds3 had repeated ear infections. Ds1 was treated with antibiotics every time, ds3 never. The only difference between them really was that ds1 ended up with a load of gut issues that took years to sort.

girliefriend yes, the discharge is often smelly - though not badly so - a bit like sore-throat breath?!? However (tmi if anyone is eating) it looks exactly like egg yolk, which is slightly unnerving the 1st few times.
We too were referred to the ENT equaivalent - our GP was particularly worried as obviously it's bad enough under normal circumstances, but DS2 is bilingual (Eng at home, French at maternelle) and any hearing loss could be really hard in her opinion. So obviously when we went along last June there were no signs of infection at all, and the specialist was very reluctant to put grommits in (they also remove adenoids as a matter of course at the same time here) so I was relieved at the time, but now....
It's really hard. He will often scream in pain before it bursts, I can't imagine how it feels
But I still don't see the benefit of ab's!

Okay that makes me feel slightly better about not giving antibiotics, they have swabbed her ear in the past and found all sorts of nasties in there. The last was pseudomonous before that was a bacteria that is linked to meningitis - freaked me out a tad although the gp told me it is a common bacteria that affects children and doesn't often progress to meningitis !

Its horrible just feel helpless, not sure what ent would do now? Don't really want more grommits unless absolutly no choice as the damage to her ear drum is already extensive. She had a course of antibiotic drops a few months ago which did seem to help so might talk to GP about having them again.

Jenpet that is exactly how it smells!!! Looks more like snot (sorry tmi) mixed with ear wax today - lovely!

Thanks for your replies

I was told once that most people have a bacteria linked to meningitis in them most of the time. They don't know what causes it to suddenly increase and cause the actual illness.

When ds has had perforations I was told he couldn'y have the drops.