Treating Ear Infections

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Now Playing: Treating Ear Infections

Reviewed By: Brunilda Nazario,

SOURCES: Steven Parker, MDDirector, Behavioral/Development Pediatrics, Boston Medical CenterWebMD Blog, Healthy ChildrenWebMD Message Board Expert

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How can I tell if my child has an ear infection and what do I need to do?

Dr. Steven Parker:

Well, ear infections are the bane of a lot of parents existence and a lot of children's. Usually children either get it or they don't. And they have a lot, or almost none and the way you'll know it is usually it hurts. And your child is going to be cranky and miserable, especially when he's lying back because the pressure builds up in the middle ear when you're lying down. It hurts less when you're sitting up. So your child may start crying at night. Obviously, if he starts putting his hand in his ear, you get a feeling something's going on there. The onset of a new fever after having a cold for a day or two could herald the beginning of an ear infection also. So you can't know for sure, but often there are clues. And if your baby is happy and not putting his finger in his ear and not cranky when lying down then probably he doesn't have an ear infection. And if he's sticking his finger in his ear and he's miserable, especially when he lies down, it's not a bad bet.

Is that an immediate trip to the pediatrician?

Dr. Steven Parker:

Well, that's a good question. I'm an old fashion guy, got the gray hair and everything. So I've been trained to treat ear infections right away. You come in, you start antibiotics you get rid of it. Now the new recommendation is not necessarily to treat every ear infection with antibiotics because of the problems of resistant bacteria, because the ear infection often goes away on its own anyway. And so if the baby's not that sick, my younger colleagues, they chide me for not doing it, may not treat the ear infection. Do you need to go in right away? If your pediatrician isn't going to treat it anyway, the answer might be no. But the real problem is, you've got a cranky baby, probably with a fever. You don't know that it's an ear infection. And until someone looks in that ear you're not going to know. And that's the reason to go see your pediatric provider is to figure out what's going on. Now what happens after that will vary, depending if they're old fashioned like me and you get antibiotics or if they're new fangled maybe like your pediatrician and they might just wait and see what happened over a couple of days.