This is something I have been doing since my husband was sick with MRSA and I have learned so much more about the proper use of antibiotics. A tidbit of history here - my daughter, who is now 12, had a series of ear infections from infancy on until a year or so ago. She had tubes put in her ears at one point, and the infections decreased, but she still had them occasionally. I imagine she had probably 15 or more rounds of antibiotics during her first 10 years of life. This has always bothered me, but more so as I have educated myself. The bacteria she has in her body is completely resistant to amoxicillin now - it doesn’t work on anything anymore with her. I have now learned to wait until I am really sure she has a problem before I take her to the doctor, and the only thing she has had antibiotics for in the last couple of years was a confirmed case of Strep throat. She occasionally gets some ear pain and a bit of a fever, but I give her some Tylenol or Advil, and it has gone away after a few days. I have always been more hesitant to give my son antibiotics (he is 4 years younger) after seeing what I have done with my daughter, and he has only taken them a handful of times, and is healthy as a horse. He must have a wonderful immune system because he rarely gets sick. I can’t tell you for sure that it is related to a lack of antibiotics, but it must have to do with something. His body is used to fighting off bacteria, and my daughter’s is used to having chemical help fighting them. Her body was getting lazy, I feel.
My thoughts on this now are about what times were like long ago, when we weren’t all rushing out to get antibiotics from our doctors. We used antibiotics really only when there was a life threatening condition, and they (hopefully) worked. I am trying to do that in our home now - so think about trying it in yours. It really can’t hurt, can it?
This is some research from Yale University regarding holding off a little bit on antibiotics. Read what they say and think about applying it to your own family.
By taking a “wait-and-see” approach where the parent is given a prescription but told to wait 48 hours to fill it, researchers at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, found fewer prescriptions were filled.
Out of 238 patients aged 6 months to 12 years brought to a hospital emergency room complaining of ear infections, two-thirds of the parents who were told to wait ultimately did not fill their prescriptions.
The group that did not fill the prescriptions recovered at the same rate as children who had prescriptions filled right away, an indication the condition often clears up on its own.
Those in the wait-and-see group who did obtain the drugs did so because their children developed a fever, an ear ache or fussy behavior.
All the children were given ibuprofen and analgesic drops.
Delay can stop unneeded ear infection drugs: study - Yahoo! News
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3 responses so far ↓
Gloria // Sep 13, 2006 at 10:34 pm
from the chemical point of view, indeed natural immunization is the best way to go. allowing one’s body to develop natural immunization against anything is the best way to go. but i guess that would only work of like you say healthy children. because if a child is sickly from the beginning then she’ll get used to having antibiotics and medicines before getting well. the dosage and strength of antiobiotics administered has to go up. it cannot be reversed anymore.
my son too has always been healthy. he is almost 4 now but i can still count in one hand the times when he needed antibiotics. he was only hospitalized once since he was born! anyway, my principle too with my son is not to give strong medicines like antibiotics unless the strong strongly ordered it.
Gloria // Sep 13, 2006 at 10:36 pm
i mean unless the doctor strongly ordered it!!
Postponing antibiotic usage in children with ear infections :: OnThePharm // Sep 17, 2006 at 12:22 pm
[...] Hat tip to MRSA Notes for this one. An study published in JAMA suggests that by telling parents to wait 48 hours to fill scripts for ear infection, physicians can help curb antibiotic overuse in children. It’s not a bad idea, and it’s something that I’ve often thought about myself. As a child I had chronic ear infections until the age of 10 when I stopped consuming dairy products. I had tubes six times. Throughout that time in my life I was averaging around one ear infection per month. In my case, waiting a day or two didn’t do anything except make things worse. [...]
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