hello, my daughter is 9 years old. She is being the target of a bully at her school. Lately she has had a recurrent middle ear infection which has resulted in her having several courses of anti biotics. Could this be stress related at all, due to what is happening at school. Thankyou
Dear parent, stress usually affects the immune system negatively and predispose to recurrent infections, but you should exclude other causes. Other causes of recurrent ear infection include enlarged adenoids, abnormalities of the Austrian tube and ineffective treatment. If the ear infection was not treated well it is very likely to recur. Make sure the dose of antibiotic is suitable for her weight and that you complete the course of antibiotics for a whole ten days. Use an antibiotic as doxycycline or cephalosporin 500 mg every 12 hours. If her adenoids are enlarged and not responding to antibiotic treatment you may consider surgical removal of adenoids.