Why is it that just when you're feeling more positive things take a downward spiral? Had a really distressing couple of weeks with dd (my little girl is 4 and has severe autism- I know there are lots of new people on here!). She's had this awful ear infection that I think is a continuation of one from November. She's been screaming in pain and pain relief hasn't been touching it. All her autistic behaviours have become accentuated and it's been really distressing. She looks awful and keeps 'blanking out'. She won't eat and keeps spitting all her food out and rolling her eyes. She's not been sleeping and has had a couple of really 'hyper' nights. In the end, after much soul-searching, I gave her the antibiotics I've been avoiding since last November (not augmentin but V strong and loads of warnings on them for under-18s etc). Initially felt like I had really let her down as she's had the same bug in her ear since November. Now she's had a bad reaction to them (skin rash, throwing up, lethargy, loss of appetite) and the doctor has told me to stop them. She's so fed up and 'not with us'. We've been referred to an ENT specialist. It's upsetting me so much that she's so out of sorts. DH very stressed out and has found it very hard. Just wanted to offload...