3 month old, ear infection and antibiotics

[MelindaGayle]

Hi,

My three month old caught the nasty virus going around our house four days ago. She's been very snotty, coughing and sneezing. Last night, she started shrieking in pain, especially when on her back, so I immediately thought ears. I took her to the doc, and she's got pretty significant infections in both ears.

She has not been vaccinated at all. The doc recommended that I put her on antibiotics right away since she hasn't had HIB or prevnar, and since the ear infection seemed to mount in intensity three days after the virus started, suggesting secondary bacterial.

So she's been on amoxicillan since last night. I'm also giving her probiotics, but I'm worried about what the antibiotics are going to do to her.

Has anyone given antibiotics to a child this young before? Are there terrible associations between antibiotics, asthma, neuro stuff with antibiotics less than 1 year old?

Anything I can do mediate that?

Thanks,

Mindy

[PediNP]

No. I have administered abx to children much younger without any complications. The biggest abx concern would be for gentamicin and hearing., but otherwise, no.

[Marnica]

Are you bf? 

Id also continue the probiotics even after she is done with the abx.

Sorry it came to abx. While Im sure there will be no lasting complications - abx do affect the health of the gut that can lead to leaky gut later on. Probiotics will help with this, but may not prevent it totally.

[Mosaic]

Moving to health and healing since this is more about abx than vax.

[MelindaGayle]

Yes, I am breastfeeding only. My concern is also leaky gut. My 3 year old had it as a baby because of a hindmilk/foremilk imbalance that churned his gut up. It took me almost 3 years to fix it, and fortunately, he didn't suffer any ill effects. But that's the kind of medical mystery that terrifies me to have to solve again - I already have a terminally ill 7 year old to deal with.

When my son was a baby and his gut was messed up, I noticed how clammy his hands and feet were. Since my daughter has been on the antibiotics, her hands and feet are totally clammy as well. So I'm freaked out...

[Marnica]

Im sorry about your 7 year old- how terrible.

As for your babe - If you feel you must give the abx (you could try alternatives garlic/meullin drops, colloidal silver drops, chiropractic care etc) than just be dilligent about addressing the issue when she is well. Can you take her to an ND?

 

Originally Posted by MelindaGayle 

Yes, I am breastfeeding only. My concern is also leaky gut. My 3 year old had it as a baby because of a hindmilk/foremilk imbalance that churned his gut up. It took me almost 3 years to fix it, and fortunately, he didn't suffer any ill effects. But that's the kind of medical mystery that terrifies me to have to solve again - I already have a terminally ill 7 year old to deal with.

When my son was a baby and his gut was messed up, I noticed how clammy his hands and feet were. Since my daughter has been on the antibiotics, her hands and feet are totally clammy as well. So I'm freaked out...

[jenP]

I'm having trouble understanding why the doctor thought that the development of a bacterial ear infection secondary to a virus has anything to do with vaccines or lack thereof? I can totally understand the diagnosis of a bacterial ear infection based on symptoms and when they started relative to when the cold started, and I can understand recommending antibiotics as treatment (although certainly there are alternative ways to treat bacterial ear infections), but I just don't understand what it has to do with HiB or Prevnar. Could it be they were just taking an opportunity to frighten you into vaccinating?

[MelindaGayle]

Maybe, but I think they were saying that I was at higher risk for baterial ear infection because she hadn't had HiB or Prevnar, and wouldn't be immune to those strains.

It gets more confusing as well. I took my 3 year old back to urgent care (we should get a frequent visitor punch card) because he cut his eyebrow and we needed to have it glued.

The doctor looked at her ears, and said that they looked like the infection was all cleared up. I'm not seeing symptoms anymore, either, although she's still a little bit stuffy in the nose. The doctor said that i could pull her off of antibiotics given the trouble it was giving her gut - that was after only 3 days of them. I asked him about the whole resistant bacteria deal, and he said it shouldn't be an issue.

They always terrify you about those things, so I'm confused about why it's suddenly not a problem.

Should I take her off of the antibiotics at this point (4 days worth) or keep her on the whole 10 day course?

Thanks very much.

[MelindaGayle]

Also - what are some of the alternatives to antibiotics in case of future ear infections?

Thanks!

[tanyalynn]

The general approach to preventing ear infections is a combination of structural work (a cranial-sacral osteopath would be a good choice) and considering food allergens, in this case in your diet.  Gluten, dairy and soy are certainly common ones but I can attest that in older kids, eating any of their allergens (and by that I'm using the word allergen in the general sense, my kids and I have food intolerances, not IgE allergies) can cause stresses during an illness that can allow a bacterial infection to start.  For my son, it was the chocolate.  ... Once you've got an ear infection (sorry this isn't a new paragraph, I have been having troubles with the software), massage around the ears can help in the structural sense to promote drainage.  I described what our DO recommended in an earlier post (if you want to Search), I can say that massage got my son from crying in pain when he woke at 10pm one night, telling me his ear hurt (he was 3yo) to back to sleep by midnight and he slept without waking (admittedly in our bed) for the rest of the night. 

[tanyalynn]

Since your LO caught an EI so young, I really would find a cranial sacral osteopath and get in for visits asap, early EIs tend to be indicators of kids more prone than most.  With my daughter, a handful of visits when she was around 6 mos old stopped the cycle of EIs she seemed to be starting and she's never gotten one again (she's 7 now), and we didn't figure out her food intolerances til she was 3.5yo. 

[jenP]

Originally Posted by MelindaGayle 

Maybe, but I think they were saying that I was at higher risk for baterial ear infection because she hadn't had HiB or Prevnar, and wouldn't be immune to those strains.

It gets more confusing as well. I took my 3 year old back to urgent care (we should get a frequent visitor punch card) because he cut his eyebrow and we needed to have it glued.

The doctor looked at her ears, and said that they looked like the infection was all cleared up. I'm not seeing symptoms anymore, either, although she's still a little bit stuffy in the nose. The doctor said that i could pull her off of antibiotics given the trouble it was giving her gut - that was after only 3 days of them. I asked him about the whole resistant bacteria deal, and he said it shouldn't be an issue.

They always terrify you about those things, so I'm confused about why it's suddenly not a problem.

Should I take her off of the antibiotics at this point (4 days worth) or keep her on the whole 10 day course?

Thanks very much.

Oh, I get it now, thank you. I had only thought of the HiB and Prevnar as being for Meningitis and Pneumonia prevention, so it hadn't occurred to me that those bacterial strains are also often involved in ear infections. Odd, neither our pediatrician nor our family doctor, both very pro-vaccine, ever mentioned these vaccines as preventing ear infections, and in fact every kid I know if IRL who has had repeated ear infections has been fully vaccinated on the CDC schedule.

As far as non-antibiotic treatment for ear infections, there is 1-simply do nothing (except for comfort measures like warm compresses or tylenol) as the majority of ear infections clear up without treatment (especially if they are viral! - did your doctor test to be certain your child's infection was indeed bacterial?) or 2- homeopathy or 3- put breastmilk in the ear (or any combination of those three.) That's all I know of, there probably are more.

Stopping the antibiotics less than halfway through the course sounds like the EXACT thing everyone says you are NOT supposed to do, that's really odd that your doctor suggested it, I truly don't know what I would do in your situation!

All the best to you!

Jen

[sosurreal09]

I was scared into doing HIB on my DD and before it she only had 1 ear infection but since she got ONE shot she has had 3 ear infections in 2.5 months! just saying

[ttcintexas]

I got scared into antibiotics when my DD (5.75 years at the time). Before them she had only had two ear infections that I had known of (treated with homeopathy) and following the antibiotics she had another ear infection just over a month later, and another one within a couple of months. Both of those we treated with homeopathy. Totally believe the antibiotics set her up for the two subsequent infections.