Amoxycillin vs Cefdinir

My daughter was very prone to ear infections when she was younger (though it has significantly improved over the last couple years). She used to get several ear infections each year and antibiotics never really helped all that much. The pharmacist recommended getting children's chewable Sudafed and crushing it up and putting it in her hot cereal or in ice creams or something like that. I asked my daughter's doctor about it and she said it might help, so I tried it. It worked wonders for us. My daughter absolutely will not take medicine of any kind (including the quick-disolve strips or the melt-away type medicines), so I was kind of leary about doing this but I actually had my daughter help crush the tablets so that she knew I wasn't trying to trick her into something. Within a short time, her ear infections dropped down to almost nothing. While the children's chewable Sudafed is OTC, you do have to ask for it from the pharmacist because they keep it behind the counter.
Anyway, I hope this works as well for you as it did for me.

L.

I S. that Lori K. Look into the food sensitivities/allergies. My son had reoccuring ear infections at 18 months. He acted fine, no fever, no normal symptoms of the ear infections. The dr. just happened to run across a little pink in the ear. After treating him three times with antibiotics, I said enough is enough! He is not acting sick, it must be something else. Sure enough I checked into food allergies. I began the elimination diet on him. Took away dairy for one year and he hasn't had an ear infection since! By the way, he is now 7 1/2 yrs old. We did give him rice milk enriched with vitamins to make sure he still received the calcium and such for his growing body.

My two cents :)

Best Wishes,

J. H.

Hi Carrie,
I wish I knew then what I know now.
In my humble opinion, it probably wasn't the amoxycillin itself but probably something in it. They use artificial colors and flavors to make meds appealing to kids. There may also have been sodium benzoate used as a preservative as well. Google "food additives and behavior changes" and see what you come up with.
I've not heard of cefdinir, but I've been out of the pediatric nursing loop for years now.
Speaking of a mother whose son was a chronic ear infection kid, I would consider some sort of allergy, maybe seasonal since things are budding right now. Our son, (now 18) had ear infections over and over. I got very frustrated for a number of reasons and finally switched docs when he was about 2. That doc was a pediatrician with a sub-specialty in allergies and was the first to mention the possible allergy link. Sure enough, once we started paying attention and addressing the allergies things got much better.

But as I started this post, if I would have only known, his allergies were not only environmental but also food sensitivities that I figured out on my own over the years. Not true allergic responses like you would think with a severe peanut allergy, but especially the food additives and preservatives can cause a lot of issues that are not usually recognized by healthcare professionals.

*No, I'm not trashing docs and nurses since I am on! :) I just know how they think, or not.

In good health,
Lori K

Good Morning Carrie, I don't have any idea about the difference in the 2 medications ( We've only been given 10 day script for Amox). One thing though we had to do with both Corbin & Zane was to soften the wax and remove it. I use "Similasan" earache relief, Homeopathic. I put one drop in their ears with small piece of cotton. Later I use one of those picks with the loop on the end to gently remove the wax. It is usually ugly looking stuff, no wonder their little ears hurt. We have diluted peroxide with water to put in Corbin's ears but the noise of the bubbling is not cool for little ones. We let it bubble a very short time then remove it.

God Bless and hopefully your little one gets so much better very soon. I don't like it when little ones are not feeling good. Poor babies.
K. Nana of 5

Hi Carrie,

I honestly have no idea bout amox vs cedi. But, there is an awesome product out. I for the life of me can't remember what it's called but it looks like a cylindrical cone. At the base of it is a pointy end that fits into the ear (won't hurt the ear at all). It is opened towards the top. Have a piece of tin foil wrapped around the bottom of it down towards his head. Light the top of it. The heat sucks out all that nasty stuff inside his ear. Let it burn down a good bit, but no more than 1/2 way. Make sure you have a good fit in his ear so it creates a "vaccum" with the heat. It has worked wonders for me, and i'm 25 and can get bad ear aches (always did as a kiddo). Hope this helps!

A.

Hi! I have had ear infections my entire life--had tubes in my ears twice when I was younger, had sinus surgery about 10 years ago, etc. (I am 40 now).

My youngest daughter also has ear infections frequently (she is 9). They are absolutely miserable. You don't feel well, it's hard to hear and understand (everything is muffled), and it HURTS all the time. It also makes it hard to sleep, which just makes it hard to deal with everything. His mood swings may be because of how painful it is and how lousy he feels.

The best I can tell you is...hang in there! I feel for you. Good luck!

actually, I can honestly say that most antibiotics can affect behavior. I have seen this with both my own children & with my daycare kids. Age does not factor into it, because both my doctor & I have also had problems with this side effect. AND with many different antibiotics!

With children, I have seen irritability, nervousness, hyperactivity, & a simple contrariness. AND it's not the actual illness, it's the med....as soon as the med is out of their system, the behavior is gone!...whether the illness is gone or not! With myself, I had intense dreams. With my doctor, he also had intense dreams & an over-the-top crabbiness (he said almost psychotic in nature!).

I find it fascinating how adversely prescription drugs can affect our bodies.

Most ear infections are viral and this is why antibiotics don't work. Go to a health food store and buy some liquid ear drops or liquid golden seal they both work great and our all natural. They federal govt. and CDC has even put out recommendations against antibiotic usage for ear infections but doctors continue to prescribe them. If your child is on antibiotics for anything you should give them probiotics two hours after the antibiotic dose and then for 5 days after the end of the antibiotic to rebuild your childs gut flora. This will help prevent your child developing allergies as well.

It's very possible that it had nothing to do with the medication at all, it could have been the ear infection. Have you ever had one that you can remember? They can be extremely painful and he may have been acting out because he was in pain and couldn't figure out why he was hurting. My son had an ear infection for over a month straight and he ended up having to get tubes in his ears to clear up the infection because antibiotics weren't doing anything for him. I wish you the best of luck and I hope things work out for you, and him.

Chiropractic helps ear infections-- without medication.
www.youtube.com and type "chiropractic ear infections" in the search line. Good luck!

WOW, it was like reading about my current state of affairs with my 5 yr old! She has been battling 3 double ear infections since probably January with cold or something inbetween. We've had Amoxycillin or Augmintin, my son has Cefdinir right now and has had both of the above but since none have cleared them up the doc is prescribing something called Bioxin. I sure hope it works because my daughter has had such bad mood swings I considered taking her in for bipolar testing. It's so frustrating. I feel your pain. I read one comment about the additives and it got me thinking about the different pharmacies we go the scripts from. I wander which ones were from Walgreens. She acted this way with a generic Tylenol from There a couple years back! Hmmmm.......Oh the possiblilities.

Good luck, I hope it all clears up soon.

Melanie, Swansea, IL

Oh my goodness, I am so glad someone understands! My son got antibiotics for the first time this past Friday and that same night I swore that an alien had taken over him. He had been whinny and crying a lot but quite understandable after a week with a nasty cold, fever, cough, and congestion. The inevitable ear infection followed, his doc prescribed Cefdinir, and every day since he has turned into a holy terror a few hours after taking it. I've got to blame the antibiotic because he had NEVER behaved like these (screaming hysterically for 20 minutes non-stop at its worst) and to top it all he had this distant stare as if about to pass out.

My 2 year old started it on Monday. He has been terrible. Screaming throwing things, hitting people, screaming, shoving things off the table in restruants.. all together unruly. I plan to call doctor and see if she can prescribe something else. This has been making our lives h#ll.

There are artificial food colorings in this medication as well as in amoxycillin. Most other countries acknowledge that these food colorings cause behavior changes, oddly similar to ADD, in children. In fact in Great Britain they are due to start adding warnings to the labels on foods containing them. The warning will specifically state that it causes ADD like symptoms and other behavioral problems in children. -kinda like smoking labels.

Easiest way to tell is give the kid a lolly pop - but nothing else and see what happens in 15 minutes. pay attention to any bubble bath too. The skin absorbs more than you think.