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Kids with ear infections who aren't given antibiotics recover just as well as kids given antibiotics, a study shows. Middle ear infections are a common reason for children to receive an antibiotic script. But when the child isn't too sick, the ear drum's intact and there's nothing else wrong, it's not clear just how much difference antibiotics make. Most trials have tested antibiotic versus none. But what about giving parents a prescription, telling them to fill it only if the child isn't better in 48 hours or is getting worse? This was tried in an American emergency department with scripts which expired after three days and compared to parents given scripts to be filled immediately. Every child also received painkillers and analgesic eardrops. 60 per cent of the wait and see parents didn't fill their scripts versus 13 per cent of the regular group, yet after six weeks follow up, there were no differences between the children in the end and no serious complications. So in straightforward middle ear infection in children, waiting and seeing with a script in hand and pain relief seems a safe option as long as parents know when to act.
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