What's the perceived wisdom on antibiotics for ear infections these days?

[WigWamBam]

Dd has always been prone to ear infections, usually has about four a year, particularly in the winter. She's usually been given a course of penicillin, but the last time she had one we saw a different GP, who won't prescribe anything for ear infections. He told us that eventually it would clear up itself, although it may take the ear drum bursting for that to happen.

She had a cold last week, and has just been sent home from school in pain with her ear again. Dh wants me to get her to the GP, but is there any point if the doctor I saw last time is right? Is it better to just ride it out?

Our GP who is practically allergic to giving out anti-Bs still wanted ds2 to have them last year when his eardrum burst (we honestly didn't realise ds2 had an ear infection until the pus came out of his ear ).

He told us that opinion was divided, but because of the additional complications you can get if you get secondary infection when the drum is perforated that he would feel a lot happier if we had the anti-Bs "just in case".

Seeing as how he's normally very wary of giving anti-B's for anything, we were very grateful for that prescription!

Oh and he also wanted us to come back in 10 days later to double check that it had healed properly too. Were we just lucky to have a very thorough GP?

DD has had a couple of ear infections when teething.Dependent on which GP I see I get conflicting information.The one who told me that they werent neccessary had obviously not heard my dd screaming in pain for several hours,despite regular calpol and ibuprofen

I can fully understand the reasoning behind not overusing ABs(I am a nurse and administer them frequently at work) but seeing my little one in screaming agony amnd knowing the antibiotics would kick in and help reduce her infection made me insist last time she had them.

WWB, get that referral. DD1 had lots of ear infections, inc. perforated ear drums, load of antibiotics which eventually stopped working. The infections started when she was 9 months old and didn't stop until she was 4½yo, after she had her adenoids removed. She was eventually referred to the ENT consultant, had 2 years of ear drops and hearing tests before having the op. She had lots of scar tissue on her ear drums because of the perforations, which eventually healed. She still has annual check ups now, she's 12yo and amazingly throughout all this still has perfect hearing.