Should I give antibiotics for possible ear infection before flying?

[petitchou]

My 10 month old has had a cold for about a week. We'll be flying next week (well, I think we are, we'll see what this ash cloud has in mind ) and he's still pretty congested with a runny nose so I took him to the dr to get his ears looked at. She said there is thick white gunk in one of them and wants me to give him abx (amoxicillin) since we are planning on flying. I know she wouldn't normaly do this since he had something similar in the other ear at his 9 month well baby visit (due to major teething I believe) and she told me to just wait it out as it would probably clear upon its own (which it did).

He's never had antibiotics and I really really don't want to start now for something that's not even infected yet. But I also don't want to get in trouble with his ears on the plane. He saw a chiro once and I'm thinking about taking him back there to see if that helps.

What can I do to help clear this up? Am I doing the wrong thing by not giving them to him? I have the prescription and am thinking of getting it filled just in case he starts running temp and having problems.

Thank you!

[tanyalynn]

I'd do something so that you are as reasonably sure as you can be that his ears aren't infected before flying. When my son got an EI after an illness that caused a lot of congestion in him, it was due to ingesting one of the foods he's intolerant of. To help him heal, I massaged around his ears (that night, when he was crying, and his crying stopped and he was able to sleep for the remainder of the night) and then the next day visited our DO who does cranial-sacral and osteopathic manipulation. Chiropractic seems similar, though given how cranial-sacral seems to really focus on the head/jaw, that seems to fit well with EIs. And DD's EIs (older child) stopped after a handful of visits to a different DO who did CST, so I'm fond of CST for ear infections.

[ASusan]

I agree with Tanya - do everything you can to get the fluid and infection out of that ear by the time you fly. I flew with a budding ear infection last year - and was in HORIFFIC pain. My eardrum burst 2 days after my flight, and the day prior I had spent on the phone with my family doc (on the other side of the country), BEGGING for an antibiotic.

At a minimum, I would get the antibiotic filled and take it with you. Also, can you get an antibiotic ear drop (or something natural you're comfortable with) and use that prior to travel instead of something systemic? (although I would have the systemic one with me for travel, even if I didn't give it in advance)