Waiting Best medicine for Ear Infection Woes

Waiting Best medicine for Ear Infection Woes
Most American parent's seem to abide by a wait and watch policy when it comes to their toddler's ear infection.

Surveys have revealed that ear infections continue to give most parents sleepless nights by being the most common childhood infection.

According to statistics provided by the American National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders 75% of all children below the age of three will contract some form of ear infection.

Researchers have attributed the popularity of this “watchful waiting” strategy to growing fears among American parents regarding resistance to antibiotics and other drugs.

Alejandro Hoberman, chief of general academic pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, who led the study, revealed that further studies and surveys would be conducted to test and compare the two methods.

Hoberman however admitted that most infections were observed to heal automatically after a while. "The key concern is how much longer will it take, and how much pain (and) crying, sleepless nights the child might have," he said.

Ear infections are usually caused when viruses or bacteria enter the ear. Most doctors have accepted that waiting is OK and recommend a visit to the health clinic only if symptoms persist or show signs of worsening.

Notwithstanding the fact that it is almost impossible to determine if the ear illness is cause by a virus or bacterium, antibiotics usually only work against bacterial infections and often the bacteria becomes resistant to the drug after prolonged use. Previous studies, such as the one that appeared in the October issue of the medical journal The Lancet have found that antibiotics are only helpful in the case of infection in both ears.