hen a young child has an ear infection, many parents are not satisfied unless they leave the doctor's office with a prescription for antibiotics, even though the infections almost always clear up by themselves and the overuse of antibiotics poses a public health problem.

A new study offers a possible solution, a "safety net" prescription. It was presented yesterday at a meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Baltimore.

The researchers, from the Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, described an experiment in which parents who sought treatment for their children's ear infections were given antibiotic prescriptions, but with a twist.

They were asked not to fill them for 48 hours unless the symptoms worsened. The parents were also given pain medications, including ear drops.

Doctors have long known that the infection, acute otitis media, can be treated without antibiotics. Concern over the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has led to an effort to reduce the use of the drugs.

But the lead author of the study, Dr. Robert M. Siegel, said it had been unclear whether the parents of children in pain could be persuaded to forgo antibiotics, because it has been routine for doctors to provide them.

As it turned out, the parents were ready. The study looked at 179 cases involving 179 children from 1 to 12 who went to 11 doctors' offices over 11 months. Of the 153 families contacted later, 47 had filled the prescriptions. Most parents described the pain medications as effective and said they would skip antibiotics again in the same situation.

Dr. Siegel said he would adopt the approach for his own practice. "I'm sold on it," he said.

Children were not allowed to participate in the study if they had temperatures of more than 101.5, ear infections in the past three months or signs of other bacterial infection.