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DrGreene Content
Is there something parents can do to change whether their children will get asthma? Babies who received a course of antibiotics during the first six months of life are 2.5 times more likely than their peers to have developed asthma by age 7, according to a Henry Ford Health System study. And babies who took even one round broad-spectrum antibiotics were 8.9 times more likely to acquire asthma. The study, presented at the European Respiratory Society's September 2003 annual conference, and reported by Reuters Health, also demonstrated a link between infants antibiotic use and other allergic diseases such as eczema. The link was clear -- but which causes which?
Are children who have allergic diseases more likely to get sick during the first six months? Or do the antibiotics increase the risk of allergic disease? To some extent both may be true. But recent controlled studies showing that giving probiotics (active cultures of beneficial bacteria) lowers the risk of allergic disease suggest that these data point to antibiotics actively raising the risk.
What's a parent to do? If someone suggests antibiotics for your child, ask if there is a safe way to treat the illness without them. If antibiotics are important to give, ask for the most narrow-spectrum choice that would work (antibiotics that kill the desired bacteria, and as few of the bystander bacteria as practical). Whenever a child needs antibiotics, I suggest giving probiotics to replenish the diversity of beneficial bacteria. Pregnant women and nursing mothers can also take probiotics to protect their children. Probiotics are available as supplements or in foods such as yogurt (for those who are old enough to eat or drink it). Stonyfield Farms yogurt is unique in providing six different active cultures of beneficial bacteria. Maintaining a healthy gut protected by healthy bacteria appears to be a powerful defense against asthma, eczema, and other allergic diseases.
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Alan Greene MD FAAP
Reviewed by: Alan Greene MD FAAP
Orginally published: October 08, 2003
Last reviewed and updated: December 2005
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