Antibiotics may have a place in treating ear infections but not necessarily as a treatment of first choice. The American Academy of Pediatrics' guidelines for the use of antibiotics in acute ear infections in children is actually that they should be avoided for the first three months.  It may surprise some people to learn that a meta-analysis of the best studies on ear infection (British Medical Journal, 1997, 87:pp.466-74) found no benefit of using antibiotics as compared to placebo.

To make matters worse, some evidence suggests that administration of antibiotics lead to three times the number of ear infections as those children left untreated.  Part of the problem with antibiotics is a basic premise of healing that is commonly ignored, that is, anytime you get something done for the body, the body doesn't learn to do it on its own as well.

In the U.S, it is too common that antibiotics are prescribed to newborns, even for simply having a reddened ear.  The long-term consequences are unknown and scary.  This over-prescribing of antibiotics for both newborns and any child is a part of what I call "medical child abuse."  I look forward to the day that homeopathy gains more respect and is added into the medicine chest of more parents and doctors.

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