anti biotics, overuse, ear infection, swimming

[wombleprincess]

4.5 month old daughter has second ear infection , dr has left it up to me to decide whether or not to give second course of antibiotics with all sorts of "on the one hand..." info and I am really confused.

anyone have any advice on how bad it really is to give a baby antibotics. I cant bear to see her suffer.

also, they were vague on whether or not to take her swimming.. instinct says no, but they sort of said... well you shouldnt stop her doing something which is good for her.

Poor little thing. Ear infections are awful. My ds (now 3) has had quite a few.

I'm not an expert on antibiotics. I don't like them personally but my ds has had a few courses (mainly for ear infections) and my 7 month old dd had some recently for a chest infection. My opinion is that if they need them then so be it. Better that than have them in unnecessary pain.

Wrt the swimming, I'd give it a miss. I wouldn't take ds if he had an ear infection.

Id give the swimming a miss too. Id also give the anti-biotics to her. When I was little I suffered with ear infections. I was constantly on antibiotics and i cant say they have done me any harm.

I would put a flannel on the radiator to warm and then put it over her ear and lie her on that side. Warmth seems to help alot as well as calprufen.

are you bf or is she ff ? Sometimes they can have a reaction from dairy which results is having ear problems.

I think you're better off NOT swimming. It's cold & water will be getting in her ears & she's very young so I'm not sure what benefit she'd be getting. Better to have a splash in the bath.

Keep off the swimming & the ab for a week. Ab's will suppress her immune system. Better to see if you can find the case of the ear infection.

Definitely give the swimming a miss. Antibiotic resistance is becoming a huge problem but unfortunatly there are not a lot of other options.
Prevention is the key. If the water was the cause of the infection which is often the case with the little ones you can use a preventative like Ear Pro to protect the ears while in the water. If it is sinus or illness related then making sure as little mucus as possible builds up blocking the Eustachian tubes , nasal flushes, etc. Also keeping the outer ears clean and moisturized. Don't use alcohol or other drying drops unless you have to... All that to avoid antibiotics, not olny because they are not good for you but also we are running out of options and drug companies cannot keep up with how quickly they become useless from over use.

Definitely not swimming.

One lot of antibiotics is not going to harm her-they tend not to give antibiotics for ear infections now, so she must need it if they've offered it to her.

Ds started ear infections at 12 weeks, and had them roughly every 10-14 days until he had grommets in at 18 months. We soon found that if he didn't get antibiotics then his ear drum burst, so it was far worse.