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A urinary tract infection can be quite uncomfortable or even painful, but in most cases it the infection is a mild one that can be managed with simple home remedies. Typically, a urinary tract infection should disappear within two or three days at the most, especially if you drink plenty of water and cranberry juice (or alternatively the solution of baking soda and water). If in spite of these measures the infection lasts for any longer than three days, it means that the infection is severe and cannot be treated by using home remedies.
In this case, your only option is to visit your doctor and diligently follow the course of treatment prescribed by him or her. This is particularly important if you experience pain, which may be an indication that the infection has traveled to the kidneys. Other indications that the infection has become severe are noticing blood in the urine or developing a fever.
Medical treatment for a urinary tract infection typically involves the use of antibiotics, which is why most people prefer to avoid it. This makes sense, but only for a couple of days - if home remedies do not work, your only option is to use antibiotics, without which the infection will simply get worse. Make sure that you use the antibiotics (and any other medications prescribed) for as long as your doctor advises you to take them. Stopping your medication too early will allow the infection to return, probably with still greater intensity. Antibiotics sometimes have side effects, but you will need to cope with these and ask your doctor how best to minimize them. In any case, the side effects are usually quite mild and pass within a few days.
One point you have not mentioned is hygiene - when you have a urinary tract infection, along with the home remedies that you have mentioned, it is extremely important to maintain strict levels of hygiene. Wash yourself carefully each time you urinate, and make sure that you change your underwear frequently too. It is also important not to hold in your urine at any time. Drinking lots of water will increase the frequency with which you need to urinate, and you should make sure that you visit the bathroom as soon as you feel the urge to urinate. One last precaution that you should take is to minimize your intake of alcohol and other substances containing sugar, as they feed bacteria, thus worsening the infection.
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