The use of antibiotics has increased drastically today. Especially in Australia, where it is reaching crisis levels. Since babies are our most precious and sensitive creatures, we are all very concerned about what it is we give them.
Parents tend to study the pros and cons thoroughly before using anything. While antibiotics can be life-saving and have decreased the infant death-rate dramatically in the last 70 years, they tend to put children at long-term risk of developing resistant organisms that can be carried by them for a very long time and spread within the family.
According to Contagion Live, a lot of infections need antibiotics because they are caused by bacteria and the infection only gets worse if not treated, but as it is, it is tough to tell whether the infection has been caused by a bacteria or a virus. The latter of which is not affected by antibiotics.
In which case, the antibiotic is redundant and could very possibly cause resistance to the baby for those particular bacteria. A whooping cough is one common infection in children which is successfully treated with antibiotics. Apart from the inconvenience of cost, antibiotics also have immediate short-term effects such as diarrhea, vomiting, rash and more seriously anaphylaxis (severe allergy).
The increased excessive use of antibiotics has caused an increase in MRSA which is a resistant bacteria that causes skin infections such as bone or bloodstream infections in children, along with the new gastrointestinal bacteria which causes severe disease and has no reliable way of removing it from the gut as of yet.
According to The Lancet, major drug companies are focusing on the development of much-needed medicines other than antibiotics. The several ways to limit antibiotic resistance such as prolonging the use of antibiotics should be utilized for children especially those under the age of one.
