Does an ear infection always need treating?

[Earyweary]

My DS,3 gets recurring ear infections in the same ear after every cold. I am concerned about antibiotics resistance as each time he gets prescribed amoxicillin. Been to the gp for this current ear infection (ear is oozing) and prescribed abs but advised to maybe wait a day or two if he improves, as it could just be viral?

has anyone had experience with not treating your child’s middle ear infection (with discharge) and did it improve on its own?
thanks

I didn’t and baby was fine. First time mum and had no idea what was going on, calpol/ nurofen type mix to treat raised temp and on/ off screaming for days ended up with gunk from both ears. I panicked then thinking something had happened to her brain with all this stuff and called emergency line to be told it sounded like an ear infection and the drums had burst. They said don’t panic, temp will fall, will self heal, don’t bathe head etc/ no cold winds for few days and they were right, temp came down almost immediately. No lasting damage, but it was a one off

DD gets ear infections quite a lot.
have they took a swab?

we didn't treat one of them as no bacteria was found via the swab and it did clear up but came back worse afew days later which needed treated.

There’s research that says an ear infection clears up 2 days quicker with antibiotics than without. Obviously 2 days makes a big difference but minimising antibiotics is important too. I always went for calpol and telly with mine.

A swab is really useful, here OP. And, as it's oozing, I would suggest a GP examination, in case if ruptured eardrum.
15 years ago, or so, all ear infections were treated with antibiotics, until we became much more vigilant about antibiotic "stewardship". Many ear infections are viral but some are not, hence the need for an examination of the eardrum/ear canal, +/- a swab.

My (now 17 year old) DS always got ear infections when he was around 3-5 & we could never get him to take medicine, so he never had the antibiotics & his all cleared up on their own in a few days.

I did ask the dr about it as I was worried there would be some sort of long-term hearing damage, but the dr wasn’t concerned at all.

I would get oozing looked at though.

My toddler has just come back from the GP visit due to an ear infection, after a thorough check the GP says no antibiotics but come back if there's a problem. I think that's fine. But it's different if ear infections cause hearing problems for your LO. Then you want the GP to be more proactive.

Yes, ds used to get recurring ones. Untreated you can seriously damage the ear