Let's talk ears.

My daughter will be one in two weeks. She is now on her fourth round of antibiotics for the same ear infection that has been lingering since her nine month checkup when the ear infection was discovered (she was showing NO symptoms so I felt awful when he told us).We have been referred to a specialist and our appointment is in two weeks. The word "tubes" has been thrown around a couple of times and I am really hesitant to give the go-ahead for my daughter to undergo surgery this young, however minor it is. In the same respect, I am also hesitant to constantly pump her with antibiotics for weeks at a time.Full disclosure, I am very pro-science and pro-medicine and always follow the doctor's advice. However, I've been doing my own research on studies regarding multiple courses of antibiotics as well as the shifted thinking when it comes to treating ear infections from "here's a bunch of antibiotics" to "let's wait and see." I'm also fully aware of the new research regarding over-prescribing antibiotics and its resulting loss of effectiveness. Again, I'm very pro medicine and we are doing everything the doctor is telling us to.Of course I don't want my daughter to be in pain or suffer any developmental delays due to temporary hearing loss...but she is progressing fine: she says a couple of words, she responds to her name, and when we're trying to hide something we don't want her to play with and it makes the slightest noise, she immediately is attentive to it. She's also generally in a good mood and is a happy kid aside from the typical I'm-a-toddler-now-mom-I-don't-want-to-do-that-thing-you-want-me-to-do attitude.Anyway, I guess I'm interested in hearing other experiences that any of you have had with chronic ear infections/antibiotics/eventual tube placement. The fact that she may be in pain and, as our doctor put it, has "learned to live with it" is heartbreaking. I just want to make the right decisions for her. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2fv9bcM