Antibiotics Side Effects in Small Children and Babies

Antibiotics kill the friendly bacteria, called "flora", that live in your child's intestines. These friendly bacteria normally regulate the consistency of the stools and help with digestion. Eliminating these bacteria can cause the stools to become loose, watery, and more frequent. Expect this to happen to some degree with many antibiotics. It is not dangerous. Sometimes, however, it can be more severe (more than 6 – 8 stools a day). If you child has severe stomach cramps or vomiting, you should contact your doctor.

There can be two types of diaper rash with antibiotics: The first is contact diaper rash. This is simply from the loose stools irritating baby's bottom. The second is fungal diaper rash. This occurs because the absence of the normal intestinal flora allows yeast (fungus) to overgrow in the intestines. This yeast comes out in the stool and causes rash.If the rash is severe, with large blisters or skin sloughed off, you should stop the antibiotic and contact your doctor.

Oral Thrush  occurs because the antibiotics kill the normal mouth flora and allow yeast to overgrow inside the mouth. You can see white patches in the cheeks, on the tongue, under the lips, or on the gums.

Sometimes children may throw up a dose of the antibiotics. If this happens once or twice, don't worry. It's probably just an aversion to the taste Contact your doctor if this continues more than three times. You may need a different antibiotic.

There are two types of rashes that can occur during antibiotic use The first is Allergic rash due to allergy to the antibiotic. This can appear in several forms: Hives are raised, red or white welts that can appear anywhere on the body. They will usually pop up for one to several hours, then fade away, only to pop up again somewhere else. The usually itch. Another rash is pinpoint red or white bumps anywhere on the body.A third type is a Lacy type of red rash anywhere on the body that is not raised..

,You should call your doctor or go to an emergency room if your child has one or more of the following signs of severe allergic reaction wheezing or difficulty breathing (not just nasal congestion) Also difficulty swallowing due to tight throat or excessive drooling with difficulty swallowing Swollen joints is also a symptom of severe allergic reaction.

One of the reasons we should make phage therapy legal is that unlike antibiotics there are no serious side effects.