Sons antibiotics linked to neurological development

[Justneedtogetthisoffmychest]

I just need to get this off my chest as I have been carrying the load for a few years now and recent news has really caused it to come to the surface.

My son is 16. While pregnant, they found that he had water on his kidneys. They expected it to naturally resolve (which it did) but put him on preventative antibiotics on the day of his birth and stated that he needed to take them for the first year of his life.

At 5 months, I questioned whether he needed them and was told that they were only preventative and we could stop them and just wait to see if he ends up with an infection.

As a child, DS had extreme language barriers which exist to this day. He is unable to pronounce words correctly or fully and cannot spell. He really struggled with school and reading although he was a good and willing student. As he grew older, he became prone to verbally abusive outbursts. This has led to a breakdown in his relationship with his siblings.

Over the years, we have had various support and he has been assessed for various needs but he has never met the full criteria for anything.

There is now research that suggests that antibiotic use in the first year is linked to neurological development particularly language and behaviour.

I feel so guilty, I should have questioned it from the start. He has started opening up more about the bullying he experienced and how difficult he finds everything and I feel so angry at myself for not realising.

I know acceptance is key here. I have never told him of my suspicions as I am not sure what good it would do. I just really needed to get it off my chest.

What’s the source of your research?

OP, sorry to hear of all this, it must have been incredibly hard.

When you say "linked to", in what way? They are correlated in some way, or is there some causative effect?

Without seeing the research it's hard to comment. Even if two things are statistically correlated (they are more likely than chance to both occur) you can't assume causation.

I have read so much research but one of the main pieces of research where subsequent studies come from is
Slykerman et al., 2017

It links to disruption of the gut microbiomes which are critical for neurological development.

There is some research to this effect. Op these look like relatively recent studies. I dont think you should blame yourself and I don't know if there was research at the time to this effect.

Science is political - there is a global issue with antibiotics resistance and therefore more of these studies are probably getting funded now.

That's probably why this idea is gaining traction about antibiotics being evil, America wants to be a the forefront of solving antibiotic resistance.

That's the hard truth- at the time it probably wasn't known. Why would you question?

I have a rare sporadic disease I developed in adulthood, no one knows the cause but I don't doubt there will be some research in future that links it to exposure to plastics or pollution.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022395625002687

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10101895/

Also just to add you can help your DS now with accessing counselling for bullying. Bullying can have a big impact but you can get support, helping equip him with tools.

When you say "links" , do you mean that both occur, or that there is a causative effect?

Sorry to repeat but it's an important distinction.

Op, I think I know how you feel and I just want to say you’re not alone. My beautiful, sweet little boy has autistic traits and struggles a lot with emotional regulation. He’s still young and it’s impossible to tell at this point to what extent this will improve, and, if he is autistic, how significantly his differences will affect him through life. During pregnancy I used a routine medication for a chronic condition. I asked my GP whether this medication had any risks both when I started trying for a baby, and also when I fell pregnant. Both times I was told it was very safe and it was important that I kept up my treatment. Since finding out that my son’s development is suggestive of neurodiversity I have googled and I found a paper that suggests the use of this medication during pregnancy has been linked with as much as a 30% greater risk of autism. I feel horrendous. In my case, the research was out there, albeit only in one paper, the quality of which isn’t brilliant from what I can tell, but I just didn’t know. I can’t be sure that this medication is the cause of my son’s troubles. I also may be autistic based on what I am told are the signs that he is on the spectrum, and I know it I’d strongly genetic. But the thought that my use of this medicine, for which there were safer alternatives, may have affected his brain development in ways that will make life harder for him is heart breaking.

At the moment, the research is only making a correlation. It is significant enough for me to believe that there is some basis in it but yes, important to note that it is not regarded as a causation.

I'm so sorry OP, I have similar in that I gave my dc medication that probably saved his life, but which is now not given to infants. I will never cease to wonder if it has had any effect on him, even though he is not struggling (but does have some conditions which his brother doesn't).

However, your counterfactual unfortunately may not be that he was perfectly healthy if you didn't give him the antibiotics. He could have had a really acute infection, which might have given him much worse long term health effects.

You did the best you could at the time with the information you had, which is all we can do as parents. It might or might not have been the best you could do, and unfortunately you cannot know that.

That report isn’t proving a link - it’s just showing that in a small group of children who had ABs in early life their mothers reported some behavioural difficulties. The link is as tenuous as saying something like of 200 children born in 2020 whose parents owned a blue car, 10% have been diagnosed with ASD, ergo blue car owners have a 10% risk of having a child diagnosed with ASD.

To prove a link between AB use and behaviour issues researchers would have to have a much wider sample, and also do blind testing with a placebo on children who have been raised in identical ways.

A site full of things that are correlated but no causation assumed
https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations

This is not me making any call on the OP's situation, but more a reminder of what "linked" can mean.

The two things (kidney condition and language difficulties) might even have a common "cause". (I'm not an expert in these conditions but it's worth considering in research).

Shark attacks and ice cream sales both go up in the summer months, but that doesn't mean ice cream is responsible for shark attacks.

It's a lot more likely that not being able to dispell urine properly in the womb would have a knock on effect on development.

Although the gut biome is important in a number of ways, it's also a huge cash cow, the next big thing, and is attracting people who are driven by that, so be cautious around the research.

Nobody will be able to separate out the antibiotics from the underlying reason for giving them, you won't get a concrete explanation for anything, especially if he isnt meeting diagnostic criteria, outcome wise.

Its tempting to try and find a reason for things, especially if you can blame someone else. It won't however, help your son or change the way you have to support him in overcoming these issues. If they are just developmental, it could do harm to start labeling them as a permanent consequence of something. Move your research to looking forward, for things you can do to support him, good luck.