ugh... wwyd antibiotics

saturdaynightdoubletree

Last week DD got hit with a stomach virus and what the pedi said "has to be strep." The stomach virus ran its course but she still had a fever the next day, the rapid strep test came back negative, but the doctor put both kids on antibiotics (DS also had fever and lots of congestion, aka a 2yr old sinus infection). I started the antibiotics that day per the pedi, and then called the next day to check the strep results, but was told the test takes 48 hours. So Wednesday I call at 12:30 and the office is already closed for Thanksgiving. Fevers both now gone, DS had his share of stomach virus, DD's throat is still pretty red, and DS has a terrible cough and congestion. Pedi's office just called to let me know DD's strep test came back negative... awesome, but not really since now they've been on antibiotics for a week for no reason! I asked the nurse if I should continue or stop the antibiotics... she just said, "Oh... well... you could do either. You might want to just finish it to kill bad germs in there." REALLY?!?! Thanks for a straight forward answer. WWYD?

MrsPteranodon

I would just finish out the antibiotics and put the kids on probiotics for a week to balance out. 

saturdaynightdoubletree

MrsPteranodon:

I would just finish out the antibiotics and put the kids on probiotics for a week to balance out. 

Thanks, that seems like a good idea.

tarebear9891

MrsPteranodon:

I would just finish out the antibiotics and put the kids on probiotics for a week to balance out. 

Yeah this. It's much worse to not finish the antibiotics. The nurse should have been more clear why, which is that all the week bacteria will die off first and if you don't finish them the strong ones are left to breed. Which is what causes antibiotic resistant bacteria. 

mrsjengle

tarebear9891:

MrsPteranodon:

I would just finish out the antibiotics and put the kids on probiotics for a week to balance out. 

Yeah this. It's much worse to not finish the antibiotics. The nurse should have been more clear why, which is that all the week bacteria will die off first and if you don't finish them the strong ones are left to breed. Which is what causes antibiotic resistant bacteria. 

I did not know this. Thanks for sharing. 

bellybaby

Pediatric Nurse here- Finish the antibiotics! Fevers are gone and everyone is feeling better, awesome!

acaudill75

Well, if one of them had a virus, I don't think antibiotics would do anything for it. A sinus infection would be helped by the antibiotics. I understand your reluctance to take the antibiotics in the first place. I think they are thrown at everything and anything as a cureall and causes way more problems than they solve. However, once started, you should ALWAYS finish antibiotics, unless LO shows some sort of allergic reaction. Otherwise, you risk antibiotics losing efficacy later on.