My daughter has bedn recently quite sick and I waited for 4 days until she started antibiotics. Now I think she could have had them earlier and avoid sleepless nights and getting exhausted. What do you think? Is the fear of antibiotics overexaggerated? thanks

Hello. Many childhood illnesses are caused by viruses which the body fights by itself. Antibiotics do not work in such cases. Most viral infections can run over a period of 5 to 7 days, sometimes longer and the fevers can get quite high. We usually allow the child 3 days or so to see if the infection will settle, which it may, if it is due to virus and if the child does not appear very sick. We may be more inclined to start antibiotics after day 3 of illness or if the child appears to be quite sick. This will be decided by your doctor. The overall reason about not being too fast in starting antibiotics is that too much unnecessary use of antibiotics generates drug resistance in the child ( if the illness is due to virus and not to bacteria) which makes future treatments more challenging. In the meantime, we are all aware that the day to day managing of a feverish child is exhausting and miserable for all. Hope this helps.

normally i will give the med whenever lo is sick. one reason is last time she had fever, i tried not to give. it got worse until the 4-5th day , i brought to hosiptal, she was down with bronchitis , then ear infection , then fungals infection . all this caused by me bcos i tot that avioding med is better. in the end she suffered alot . i seen them putting tubes into her nose n mouth, she was screaming and so tramatic . in the end , 3 weeks of non stop medicattion . the med box is so packed and the counts of med i gave her even scares me. similarly happen to my son too . in the end brought to hospital , down with rota virus even when he has his vaccines already . his white blood cells count was 4 times more than an adult and was in dangerous stage. hospitalised for 5 days with antibitoics admisitered into his body continuously. he told us it hurts.. now whenever they r sick, i give med.

I think if a doctor described antibiotics, it is best to follow instructions and start the medication on time. Antibiotics work best when completed according to the prescribed schedule. Personally, I have no issues giving my child antibiotics. If I took them to see the doctor and they are prescribed, I'd follow the instructions and feed them to my child accordingly, else the doctor's trip would have been a waste. Moreover alot of us grew up taking antibiotics when we were sick and we turned out okay.

Docs will not go antibiotics way unless very serious. Usually they try to let the child fight the illness using their own immunity which will strengthen the body. Antibiotics will make the body weaker for the first 2 days before clearing the illness faster.

Antibiotic is bad for the liver.. That is the reason why doctor avoid them