When your child’s sniffling, sneezing and coughing become a part of your family’s daily soundtrack, it’s natural to want to do all you can to ensure a quick return to wellness.
But a prescription for antibiotics? It’s not always the answer. Doctors, hospitals, even the U.S. government are advising parents to pull the plug on asking for anti-bug drugs. Why?
Antibiotics are strong medicines that kill bacterial infections, but they have no effect on viruses. And most childhood illnesses are viral, including colds, the flu, most coughs and most cases of bronchitis or sore throats. If you or your child has a viral infection, taking antibiotics will not cure you or make you feel any better. And it won’t keep others from catching your illness. It may even just wipe out your “friendly” gut bacteria and give you diarrhea for no good reason.
Appropriate use of prescribed antibiotics to wipe out a bacterial bug — such as an ear infection, bacterial strep throat or non-viral sinus infection — is great for children’s health and the health of those around them. But many parents want antibiotics “just in case,” even though doing so may actually do more harm than good. And some people who are prescribed antibiotics don’t take them correctly; they skip doses or stop taking them once they start feeling better. When this happens, some of the bacteria survive and “learn” from the encounter with the antibiotic.
Antibiotic abuse has led to bacteria evolving very quickly. Many bacteria are now at a point where they can resist antibiotics entirely. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has named antibiotic resistance a top concern and one of the world’s most pressing public health problems. Bacteria that become stronger and less responsive to antibiotics may spread quickly and threaten the health of communities with new infectious diseases that are more difficult and expensive to treat. Researchers, in turn, must look for new, more expensive antibiotics to fight “supergerms.” These new antibiotics are very difficult to find — if they can be found at all.
Your primary care provider at Riverview Health can discuss the pros and cons of antibiotics with you. But in most cases, if your child has an ordinary cold or flu, the time-tested solutions are usually still the best: bed rest, plenty of fluids, chicken soup — and time.
Has it been a while since your last primary care appointment, or do you need a new physician? Call us at 317.565.0565 to request an appointment.
Source: CDC.gov, FamilyDoctor.org, NLM.NIH.gov
