» Baby/ Antibiotics

Two Out of Three Babies Recieve Antibiotics by First Birthday

Two out of three infants receive antibiotics before they turn one year old. By the age of two, three out of four children have received the drugs, according to recent research.

These findings are especially concerning as resistance to common antibiotics is becoming an ever increasing problem. Deaths caused by Staphylococcus aureus, the so-called superbug that is resistant to most antibiotics, are reportedly increasing.

Moreover, research from a new study has shown that children from low-economic backgrounds are more likely to receive antibiotics than those from more well off families, and boys tend to receive antibiotics earlier than girls. Low-economic background might be a factor because people from this group tend to have higher rates of respiratory illness due to smoking and a lower likelihood of breast-feeding.

The study investigated how young children are when they receive antibiotics and evaluated patterns of antibiotic resistance among people aged zero to 40 years.

Records for all children born in Tayside, Scotland during 1993 showed that by the age of one year 63 percent of infants had needed antibiotics, 75 percent by the age of two. Exposure to antibiotics was highest during the first two years of life, and decreased steadily thereafter.

In terms of antibiotic resistance acquired through exposure to drugs, resistance increased with age up to six years, then declined until 20 years of age, then increased with age, according to researchers. Whether exposure to antibiotics at an early age is an important factor in the development of antibiotic resistance remains unknown.

- Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy December 2002; 50: 1085-1088

Comments

This is a sad but true article. The medical establishment has convinced American parents that they need to run their babies to the doctor at the first sign of a fever. This does not make sense, as a fever is actually a good thing.

High fevers are especially good as they are far better than any immunization at building an authentic, life-long immune response. When we suppress these fevers with Tylenol we can cause far more harm than good.

To add insult to injury, parents give their children antibiotics that do absolutely nothing for the viral infection and do everything to upset the fragile bacterial microenvironment in their child's intestine.

It is no wonder that so many of us are sick as we grow up. Most of us are fed grains rather than vegetables, and then we are assaulted by well-intentioned, but nevertheless very harmful, rituals that nearly guarantee a major health challenge down the road.

These medical "traditions" result in problems from allergies to recurrent ear infections and tube placements in the ears to drugs for attention deficit disorder.

Many traditional medical circles now accept the hygiene hypothesis, the idea that children who experience frequent infections and inflammations in early childhood will strengthen their immune systems and be less prone to allergies and asthma than children who rarely experience such infections.

Unfortunately, the hypothesis hasn't penetrated the population rapidly enough to prevent the inevitable health traumas resulting from the antibiotics given to our infants.

© Copyright 1997-2002 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.