Researchers are studying an experimental PNCRM7 vaccine

From CNN Medical Correspondent Rhonda Rowland

ATLANTA (CNN) -- Most parents of small children know the painful, stressful toll of ear infections.

Families like the Picketts, with two children, Eric, 8, and Adam, 4, know the illness all too well.

"We did the up-in-the-middle-of-the-night thing -- fevers, high fevers," said Robin Winkler-Pickett. "My boys ran 105 degree fevers with ear infections."

Winkler-Pickett also missed a lot of work and the medical pills piled up.

The infections were worst with Adam. As an infant, he had an ear infection known medically as otitis media.

It turned out to be so severe it lead to meningitis, an infection around the brain.

"It's a scary thing," Winkler-Pickett said.

But there may be a new way to prevent these infections.

Researchers are studying an experimental vaccine that may protect children from a type of bacteria called pneumococcus, the most common cause of otitus media in children.

The vaccine, called PNCRM7, isn't perfect since there are over 80 types of pneumococcus and the vaccine covers seven.

"But those seven types are responsible for about 85 percent of severe diseases and about 65 percent of middle ear infections," said Dr. Margaret Rennells of the University of Maryland Medical Center. "So it will help enormously, but it's not going to eliminate all pneumococcal infections."

So would another vaccine be worth it? Children are receiving an increasing number of vaccines -- the latest is the chicken pox vaccine.

"I think any parent who's had a child with otitis media would say absolutely," Rennells said. "If a shot can prevent ear infections, and these are severe infections, then it's worth it."

If studies with the vaccine continue to go well, it could be available to children in two to five years.