Almost 3 weeks ago my 9mo ds came down with a cold, nothing too bad just a really bunged up head cold with bad congestion. After a few days he developed an odd sounding cough that didn’t sit right with me so we took him to an out of hours dr who said it was croup and gave him an oral steroid and sent us on our way. Sorry, just to add we were at his regular GP that morning as he had started pulling his ear, he was given a 5 day course of amoxicillin for an ear infection and we were to give him calpol every 4 hours. Four/five days later the cold was drying up but the ear situation was getting worse, another trip to the GP and they weren’t happy with it so sent us to A&E who told me his ears were red raw and bulging on the inside and they extended the amoxicillin by 3 days bringing us to 8 days total. Another four/five days went by and there is no improvement, he is having calpol and ibuprofen alternating every 2 hours as advised by the hospital. Now, almost a week since then, his cold is long gone which is great but the ears are still as bad. Another GP visit today and the ears are a real problem now, he’s pulling at both of them, poking things in them and generally very very unsettled. It’s wildly out of character for him as he is a very content child, sleeps well and eats well. He’s not sleeping at all, can’t be laid back at all as he is visibly in a lot more pain. He’s not eating or drinking half as much as normal and as well as the ear tugging his balance seems to be off and he is starting to bump the side of his head seemingly on purpose. He’s so out of sorts, frustrated and in obvious discomfort. I have been giving him calpol for almost 3 weeks and ibuprofen for just over one, constantly and he has been given a second week of antibiotics today which are apparently more aggressive. They say the cold has caused this as fluid has built up in his ears and can’t drain. My issue is that I’m starting to feel a bit fobbed off, I am in no way a dr nor do I claim to know better or more than them but antibiotics have already not made a blind bit of difference and he’s been on the same pain relief for weeks. When do we start exploring possibilities that this isn’t an infection but something else?