do GP's give anti-biotics for ear infections these days?

[misdee]

in otherwords should i go to out of hours clinic?

dd3 has woken up the last two nights with ear ache. early this morning she was sobbing with it. have been giving neurofen. no oozing from the ear at all. she seems fine at the minute with it and is happily playing.

is it worth going to the clinic to get it checked? or shall i just carry on as have been doing?

anything i should keep an eye out for?

Yes if bacterial. If temperature I would have got it checked by doc or called NHS direct at least.

if you can control her pain and temperature, then she probably doesn't need a doctor urgently.

Yes, I'd go - GPs are generally discouraged from giving anti-bs for ear infections but sympathetic ones will - one said to me 'it's more important to help an anxious mother than stick to ruddy guidelines'.

Does she have a history of repeat infex? They usually try 2 just manage w/ painkillers nowadays, unless it gets quite bad, lingers over a week or there's a history of bad infex/other signif. factors.
Sounds like you're doing right things.

she doesnt have a temperature at all.

she is perky and happy, just complaining her ear aches.

nope, no history of ear infections at all in the past. think this might be the first one for her.

if she had other symptoms i would be at the clinic already.

well, dd3 suddenly started running a temperature and got really tearful. i have called out of hours and have to take her down at 6pm for a quick check up.

am keeping her dosed on neurofen, but may have to add in calpol inbetween if her temp isnt under control.

I find some do and some don't (dd1 has had past ear infections)

If it's an infection, the pain is probably pressure in the drum. Generally what happens is it then ruptures, and you often get gungey, smelly discharge seeping out

IME, once it's 'popped' they feel better.

With dd, I tend to wait and see if the 'gunge' clears up by itself within 2-3 days... if not down to GP. If it is really smelly, down to GP.

I went to a homeopath in the end after 4 in under a year. So far so good... has had one 'popped' ear which cleared up itself.

Hope your dd is better soon

You could try very gently inserting a piece of tissue with about five drops of lavender oil into the ear. This seemed to help my daughter when she was little. In fact, I just used to tip a few drops of the oil into the ear. There may be a little tingling sensation at first but when I tried it on myself with a sore ear it didn't hurt me.

If your dd has a bit of earache, no significant fever or ear discharge and is reasonably well in herself, I would tend not to prescribe antibiotics. Most ear infections are viral and don't respond to antibiotics- all that is needed is decent pain relief until the episode has passed. It is also worth bearing in mind, that a lot of earache isn't actually due to ear infections, but throat or tonsil problems.

I think it is worth you taking her to see a GP to get her checked over, if that would set your mind at rest.

Please don't ever stick things down your child's ears unless it has been prescribed and you know how to use it correctly- I have seen too many perforated eardrums caused by well-meaning parents!

To make it clearI wasn't advocating sticking anything INTO the eardrumjust wiping out the ear. Sorry if that wasn't clear. We are not cottonbud users in this family. In fact it was a doctor who told me about the tissue.

Sorry--make that a health visitor, not a GP, for the sake of accuracy. She showed me how to use the tissue plus lavender.

My GP gave antibiotics when ds2's ear "popped" (he hadn't appeared to be in pain at all, just running a slight temperature).

Apparently he said that there was a risk of bacterial infection then getting into the ear with a small risk of damage to hearing as a result, so he always prescribed ABs for that. He didn't prescribe ABs routinely for ear infections in general though.

Does that help?

well, we took her to the out of hours. her ears are fine but her throat is inflammed and her galnds are up. been told to carry on with painkillers for now, if no better by weds to see GP.

thanks

Good stuff. Hope she gets better soon.

Interestingly in places like Sweden (I am reliably informed) they pop the ear drum to let out the pus rather than give antibiotics.

Lovely.

went to drs

dt2 has temp, and is in pain, grumpy, not sleeping and has an ear infection - confirmed by dr - told to treat with calpol over 48 hrs

dt1 has no temp, happy, slleping but has a runny ear and is on amoxcillan (sp?)