Antibiotics

When you bring your child to the office for a sick visit, wouldn’t it be great if we had a quick fix to that runny nose or hacking cough? The truth is that most of the infections that children encounter are viruses. Viruses enter the body through the mouth, nose, eyes, or digestive tract, for example. They cause a variety of symptoms such as runny nose, congestion, cough, sneezing, vomiting, diarrhea, and rashes. With rare exceptions, there are very few viruses for which there is a medicine designed to kill that virus (an anti-viral medication). Rest, fluids, and tincture of time will generally lead to the resolution of the symptoms.

So what about antibiotics? When are they needed? Antibiotics are drugs that combat bacterial infections. Bacteria can cause infections such as ear infections, strep throat, pneumonia, bladder infections, and skin infections. We reserve antibiotics for cases where bacterial infections have been identified on exam. We do not prescribe antibiotics without identifying an infection likely to be caused by bacteria. Prescribing antibiotics “just in case” can actually be harmful to your child. Due to the overuse of antibiotics, there is a growing problem of antibiotic resistance. This is when bacteria have learned to defend themselves against an antibiotic and therefore a different or more potent antibiotic is needed to treat the infection. The more antibiotics are prescribed unnecessarily, the more antibiotic resistance we will to see. Also, any time an antibiotic is given there can be side effects such as diarrhea, upset stomach or even an allergic reaction

So the next time we diagnose your child with a viral infection, remember that for the majority of cases, no medicine is the best medicine for your child!