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“Wait-and-See” Approach OK for Ear Infections Children with acute ear infections may not need antibiotics — even when the infection is serious. A study looked at 283 children ages 6 months to 12 years whose infections sent them to the emergency room. Doctors gave the parents of 145 a prescription for antibiotics and told them to fill it. Parents of 138 others also got a prescription, but they were told to fill it only if the child didn’t improve or got worse in 48 hours. “Compared to children who were given antibiotics, children in the wait-and-see group had the same outcomes,” says David Spiro, M.D., lead author of the study in The Journal of the American Medical Association. Rates of fever, ear pain and added medical visits were the same.