New guidelines on how to treat your child's ear infection

Ear infections are one of the top reasons parents take their children to the doctor. The most common type of earache is an infection in the middle ear.

In the past there have been questions on whether to treat a young child's ear pain with antibiotics.  Many parents and some doctors shy away from giving a baby these medications because of side effects such as diarrhea and resistant bacteria.

Now a revised version of earache guidelines has been published in this week's Journal Of Pediatrics providing a choice between antibiotics or observation if the ear infection is only on one side and the child has only mild symptoms.

However, according to the revised version of the guidelines, if a baby between the ages of six-months and two-years-old has a temperature of 102 and/or acute pain in the ear, that little one should be given antibiotics. 

Since the last revision of the guidelines back in 2004, child health experts have found this method to be the most effective in treating little ones with common earaches with more severe symptoms.