Overuse of Antibiotics in Children
Many parents are faced with sleepless nights when their child is sick with a fever, the flu or a cold. When both parents work, it can become challenging being up half the night taking care of a child and then waking up feeling energized enough to function at work. There is also the issue that the child may be sick enough that they need to stay home from school or daycare for a day or two until they are well enough to return to school or childcare which means a parent must miss work. For these reasons, parents make the decision to call the Dr. and take their child in to get medicine. While this may solve the short term problem, parents may be facing a bigger long term problem of antibiotic resistance.
Antibiotics are useful in fighting bacterial infections, fungus and some parasites. However, antibiotics do not fight infections that are caused by viruses such as the flu, a cold, most coughs, bronchitis or sore throats (unless it is strep). Each time you take an antibiotic you will be running the risk that the bacteria in your body will resist the antibiotic the next time. Bacteria and germs are essential for the body to develop an immune system to fight off the big infections and illnesses to come. Over time, parents may find that the antibiotic isn’t working anymore and switch to another one and so on. Continuing down this path leads to an even bigger problem of multi-resistance or a “superbug” which means that the bug carries several opportunities of resistance which limits the available antibiotics that are effective in killing the bacteria.
Ear infections are the most common use of prescriptions among children in the United States and according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, “80% of children whose ear infections are not treated immediately with antibiotics get better on their own”. (http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/maraomrelease.htm) Unfortunately, many parents today rush their child to the doctor upon suspicion of an ear infection and walk out of the doctor’s office with an antibiotic prescription and enter into the vicious cycle of this repetitive behavior.
Parents today are overusing antibiotic prescriptions due to the push of the pharmaceutical industry and the demands of their careers but ultimately we are risking the health of our children. Dr. Greene offers a brief guide for parents that will help determine when an antibiotic might be useful and when it might be best to allow your body to heal on its own http://www.drgreene.com/21_646.html.
For a recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics on how to treat an ear infection without using antibiotics, click here http://www.aap.org/sections/media/TreatEarInfect.htm.
Interesting Reads:
CBS News Silent Killers; Scary Superbugs
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/19/48hours/main522536.shtml
WebMD; Cutting antibiotics for Ear Infections
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I definitely agree with this but as always we need to look at the real issues and peel back the onion. The child diet today is horrible with fast food and processed food it is no wonder our children are getting sick. Secondly, we view our health care as the quick-fix when we get sick probably because we don’t have “time” to be sick and our health care providers are there to give us the magic pill – or in this case whatever will cure us fast and quickly. If there was a greater focus on nutrition for children and other alternatives like herbal and homeopathic remedies that have fewer side-effects or related sickeness then maybe we wouldn’t rely on the quick-fix of medications that bring on other health issues and a weakened immune system.