...to think I don't need antibiotics?

[Gobbolino6]

From birth until I was 25, I had regular ear and throat infections that were treated with antibiotics.

Things improved, and I haven't taken antibiotics for years.

Flu (flu A?) has been going through my DS' nursery and has hospitalised a couple of toddlers. We've all had it and largely recovered. However, I've had quite bad earache, a swollen tongue and a very sore throat for six days now. It's not the worst I've had, but without painkillers I can't sleep.

As it's not terrible, I'm just eating lots of fruit and veg and waiting to recover. It's not getting better, but it's not getting worse either.

Is it going to go away? What are your experiences please?

Go to your gp you might not need antibiotics but it could be something else entirely different from the flu and or they could help with managing symptoms

As a mother of an immunocompromised child, I'm in the camp that if you can walk, talk and breathe, you probably don't need antibiotics (although they may clear up the infection sooner than your body can work itself through by itself and I'm almost certain that your GP will prescribe them if you ask enough - provided they think it's bacterial of course).

The last time our GP felt that my sons "cough" didn't need antibiotics, fast forward 36 hours and he's on the high dependency unit with bacterial pneumonia. This would be the case when I'd say yes, antibiotics needed up front please. But tbh, you sounds fine and happy to ride it out -THANK YOU for having this attitude. Truly

Thanks. I don't want to take them unless necessary. Hoping it starts to shift soon!

Sore throat - sounds like strep throat. Untreated that can lead to heart disease . Why on earth would you not go to the doctors when you obviously are ill?

Well, the good news is that it's got better on its own. Thanks everyone.

Glad you are feeling better. Just to point out though, antibiotics aren't going to do much for flu anyway, it's a virus!

Strep throat does not lead to heart disease in 99.9999 % of cases. That was the case many many years ago but the streptococcal bug is totally different to what it was then. We had a recent update(48hrs) ago at work from the primary care pharmacists about it. It also does not lead to glomerulonephritis as it used to
The majority of strep throats will get better by themselves. In the Netherlands they hardly ever give antibiotics for tonsillitis and don't have complications. I do prescribe antibiotics and actually will give for tonsillitis if you are systemically unwell but people ask for them far too early.

I know flu isn't going to be helped by antibiotics...that much has got through to my poor arts-educated brain by now .

I would certainly have taken antibiotics years ago for what I thought was a secondary infection following the virus. I was curious to see if it would clear, and I was pleasantly surprised!

If you don't have a delicate stomach, you could take garlic. You can either mince up fresh garlic and put it on a spoon, like medicine and wash it down with water, or get garlic capsules and take two every two hours, which is what I do, it is great for fighting infections.

I was going to say garlic too! Treated my last throat infection with this as ttc at the time and wanted to avoid drugs. Was amazed how well it worked.