Seattle Mama Doc shares how you can reduce your child’s risk for ear infections by taking 3 simple steps, and how to avoid using antibiotics when you don’t need them.

Transcript: Did you know that you can reduce risks for ear infections in children by taking three simple steps?

• Breastfeeding children for at least 6 months
• Providing routine on time childhood vaccinations
And avoiding exposure to cigarette smoke

Risks for ear infections go down

Hi I'm Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson in partnership with the Washington State Department of Health, I’m here to talk about ear infections- how we treat them and how to avoid using antibiotics when we don't need them.

The most important thing for you to remember about ear infections is they often go away on their own because ear infections are often caused by viruses like the common cold. We often don't have to use antibiotics to treat them, particularly in older kids.

If your child’s over the age of two, and develops fever and ear pain we can often wait a couple of days and not use antibiotics because most kids will get better all on their own. The most important thing for you to do in the first day or two of an ear infection is to provide pain relief, you can use acetaminophen or ibuprofen with your doctor’s permission.

However if your child’s under the age of 2 and develops fever and ear pain, you should see a health care provider right away.
Other situations where we do want to use antibiotics include, when an ear infection is so severe that it causes the ear drum to rupture and drain fluid and with kids who have an ear infection and are not treated initially, but go on to have ear pain or fever after 2-3 days.

Antibiotics can sometimes cause more harm than good, they’ll kill off the good bacteria and lead to antibiotic resistance, meaning antibiotics will no longer work to kill that type of bacteria.
If we avoid antibiotics when we don’t need them, we keep our children, our families and our community healthier.

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