[blue11]

I'm very glad to hear that your son had a happy outcome!

"Ear infection" is often not even a heuristic. Pediatricians sometimes say that when it's not obvious what's wrong with a small child that has a little a bit of fever and is crying. Parents need to hear a reason and "ear infection" sounds more convincing than "probably nothing", and sometimes parents can be, well, difficult. I've even heard a pediatrician admit as much once. On another occasion, a nurse practitioner diagnosed our child with an ear infection without even bothering to check the ears.

Emergency physicians, on the other hand, are always thinking about the worst case scenarios and trying to rule them out.