When should i give my child antibiotics if i take the wait-and-see approach for an ear infection?

Why wait?: Ear infections hurt and decrease hearing... Not a good combination for a child. Antibiotics are safe and decrease suffering. There are side effects to medication use, the flip side is dealing with the ongoing pain (usually 7-10 days) or the hearing loss which may persist up to 3 months after an acute infection with persistent fluid behind the ear drum.

Depends: Some controversy exists about otitis treatment & i find it more about comfort with the diagnosis than treatment itself.If you are using a red drum as your standard, you will over call & over treat otitis. The drum can turn red simply by inserting the tool to examine it & viral uri's can make a drum red, neither need abx. If you use a fluid or puss backed red drum as your standard it needs abx now.