Health-Essentials.info > Published Sources > Infants and Antibiotics
Updated August 23, 2006
The Connection between Infants, Antibiotics & Allergic Asthma
When doing what seems right for your child's health turns out to be wrong
Adapted from Dr. David Williams, Alternatives, Vol. 10, No. 6.
Used by permission.
In a study published in the Epidemiol Review (Epidemiol Rev 02; 24(2):154-75), the overall health of a group of 448 children was monitored from birth to age seven. In this group:
Antibiotics and asthma:
In the study cited here, the use of antibiotics in the early years were associated with the development of asthma. There has been another study, released in 2006, making a similar link to children who swim in indoor pools. Could there be a link here?
One thing that antibiotics and swimming pools have in common is this: they kill off the friendly bacteria in the gut. And, this colony of gut flora is a critical part of immunity.
With this study's connection to the effects have not having pets in the family — another immunity issue — it would seem that a good preventative, and possibly a support for, asthma would be a good, full-spectrum probiotic, like the homeostatic soil organism blend.
- Almost half of the children were given antibiotics during their first six months;
- A quarter of those had two courses of antibiotics; and
- One-fifth of the group had three or more.
It was discovered that the children that were given antibiotics during the first six months of life were 2.6 times more likely to develop allergic asthma than those who hadn't received antibiotics.
But, it gets worse:
- If broad-spectrum antibiotics were used, their risk was 8.9 times higher.
- If broad-spectrum antibiotics were used, and there were no pets in the family, the risk was 11.5 times greater.
Also, taking antibiotics during the first six months of life increased the risk of developing allergies to things like grass, cats and dogs by 50 percent.
An unnecessary tragedy
What makes all of this study's results so much more tragic is that the use of antibiotics are seldom — if ever — necessary. There are safe and effective alternatives.
One of the most powerful alternatives to antibiotics is the use of therapeutic-grade essential oils. Properly used, essential oils are safe for use even on infants, and many have been demonstrated to have unequalled effectiveness against pathogenic agents.
