Infants, Asthma & Antibiotics

[Blossom/Jackie W.]

I read something interesting in this month’s issue of the Cdn version of the Reader’s Digest (News From Medicine section)

“Babies treated with an antibiotic before their 1st b’day are twice as likely as antibiotic free infants to develop asthma according to researchers at the Univ. of BC in Vancouver. And the risk of developing the chronic lung disease grows each time a baby is given one of the drugs.

Data from 8 studies – which included more than 12,000 children – found children were up to 2.9 times more likely to develop astma if they’d been given an antibiotic before the age of 1.

In a second analysis, involving more than 27,000 childre, the B.C. team found a % increase in risk for each additional course of antibiotics given to children…..

….about 10% of children in Canada have asthma…”

[larrynz]

found children were up to 2.9 times more likely to develop astma if they’d been given an antibiotic before the age of 1.
...................................................................................
But would not an asthmatic child be more likely to need an antibiotic?

[Blossom/Jackie W.]

Don't know....good Q Larry. They made no mention of it.

[larrynz]

I should have mentioned one of ours had asthma, often needed the antibiotic.
My experience of trials is often the people running them have an agenda, they may wish to please the sponsor and get repeat trials, some just look for recognition so want to produce a paper. An example, one I was on did a six minute walk test when we started and at the end, with the end one I was constantly told how much time was left and urged to do more, my FEV1 was also gasumped.
The only ones I would trust is the double blind ones.

[cocojax]

My youngest daughter Kelly was on Antibiotics when she was really young, asthma and allergies, on prednisone when she was under 5. Now her son Jaxson has had a terrible time of it, he has had so many ear infections that he had to take antibiotics, now he has ear tubes, and now they think that the hives (they gave him pediapred ) he had and vomiting is some kind of virus..He will be two in August, for the last while we have thought that maybe he was Autistic, he will make eye contact and can be very affectionate but he does not talk, and is not as advanced as he should be. Now when he gets agitated the hand flapping is worse, the two paediatricians that he has seen have both mentioned it might be on the high end of the spectrum ( which means less severe ) but he may never learn to communicate properly. There is a children's center here that we have taken him to for testing but he is still too young to be sure. He is a lovely little boy, but my heart goes out to my daughter, she is trying so hard to be brave and no matter what he is what he is. It is just really hard on her and her husband. Who knows if all the drugs he has had to take are having an effect on him, but without taking them, he would be so much worse..

[larrynz]

Allergies are often inherited, not every family member, in fact some generations can miss out but pass it to their children, like red hair, my wife has red hair, our kids missed but some of the grands got it, not that it is like an allergy .
Asthma in our family goes back way before antibiotics. I remember going shopping with my Granddad, we had to keep stopping for him to get his breathe back, no inhalers then, I have some asthma as does my kids and grands.

[morningstar]

Allergies have always been a problem in my family. And it was rare to go to the doctor when my mom was growing up. And when I was growing up I took a lot of home remedies passed down from my grandma. My grandma Moore's favorite and something I detested but learned to love was sweet onion juice. You'll love this Larry. She would slie a onion very thin in a pan, sprinkle with white sugar add a touch of water and boil it. Then you covered your head with a towel and inhale that steam till it cooled down. Then you got to drink the juice. Mercy. But, we all believed it helped break up a chest cold. And we all felt better the next day.
Antibiotics was not something that was a given when you got sick here. Going to the doctor meant you were on deaths door and anitbotics were few and far between.

[LindaNY]

My kids rarely had antibiotics, but one had horrible ear infections and did. He and his sister are the only two who didn't developer asthma.

My 2nd and 3rd son did and they never had antibiotics when they were little.