To think that prescribing small children antibiotics

[SkaPunkPrincess]

That need to be taken on an empty stomach is just a bit silly?

Instructions are an hour before or two hours after food. So for my 20mo and 5yo who have been prescribed today a weeks course to be taken 4 times a day. They eat every 3 hours minimum! How am I going to fit in the doses?

😒

First dose half hour before breakfast. Half hour is fine as stomach is fully empty after night. Then an hour before lunch and tea and one at bed time.

One hour after they have eaten, is two hours before they eat if they eat every three hours.

It's doable. You might need to put alters on your phone to remind you so you don't forget any of the four times.

*alerts

If it's flucloxacillin this is usually antibiotic of choice for skin infections etc and is best taken on an empty stomach to maximise absorption I think. Other antibiotics may not work as well for that condition.

20 mo still has milk before bed and 5 yo has milk and toast before bed.

Couldn't they just give me one that needs to be taken WITH food?

So much more practical with little ones.

It's sensible to give the antibiotics that will work. If those antibiotics need to be given before food, that's just the way it is. They can't give you convenient antibiotics that won't work...

They won't work either if I can't get four doses a day in!

They will work just won't be as effective

Had this conversation with a pharmacist about DD (3) who is a grazer and was not going to swallow the antibiotics without a good dose of jam and that was the answer. DD ate her jam carried on grazing and recovered fine

YABU to say it's a bit silly. They don't just make this stuff up for the hell of it.

Yes, they make this stuff up just to piss you off .

Where did i say i think they make it up?

I would imagine the doctor prescribed the antibiotic that is most suitable in treating your children's specific condition. Would you prefer it if they had been prescribed something less effective?

Ok, you didn't exactly say they make it up. But by calling it silly, you are implying there is another, or better option.

To be honest I just thought antibiotics were antibiotics.

Well, now you know.

I think you need to educate yourself a bit more about antibiotics because if you can’t see the point in adhering to antibiotic regimes or why you have to take them in certain ways then your kids will take longer to get over their illness and it little wonder why we have antibiotic resistance

My son gets given this quite regularly for tonsillitis. I asked a few different pharmacists and they all agree that an hour either side is fine. I never manage an hour before the morning dose as he needs to eat as soon as he wakes.
I always wake him before I go to bed for a dose. Thankfully he's the type of kid who will just sit up and open his mouth while I squirt it in with a syringe and then he goes back to sleep. So, he has:
7:00am dose
7:30 breakfast
10:00am dose
11:am snack
12:00 lunch
3:00pm dose
4:00pm snack
6:00pm dinner
10:00pm dose.

Paeds nurse here. Doctors will prescribe a specific antibiotic to a child based on their infection and many other factors. Trust me it would make all of our lives much easier if we could just give all kids the nice yellow banana syrup that they all like and is 2x a day, but antibiotics don't work like that. Inconvenient, but nobody's fault.

It takes an hour for orally ingested 'food' (or syrup) to start to be digested. If you put food in the stomach in the hour following the antibiotics, then they may not be absorbed properly. If you give antibiotics before 2 hours after food, you risk them not being absorbed properly. It's rubbish, but there it is.

Other antibiotics need to have food, so that they don't give awful side effects.

I am totally with you OP. Yes, different antibiotics for different things but there are lots of variations within the type. I often think you just get the cheapest thing available. I would happily pay extra for palatable ones (if such exist!), or even a shot if there was an option. Just going through this battle with a DS.

The antibiotic you are given is the recommended 'first line' treatment for the bacterial infection that you are diagnosed with. The 'first line' treatment will be the treatment that is deemed to be the most effective, with the shortest duration of treatment and the least likelihood of significant side effects or development of resistance/mutation.

Antibiotics are a serious treatment and should be taken as seriously as a prescription for steroids, inhalers, beta blockers, antidepressants, etc. Just because they used to be given out like sweeties doesn't change the fact that they are serious drugs that have serious implications for our bodies.

On Intensive Care Units, there is a requirement that they have a daily microbiology round. That microbiology round looks at (among other things) the antibiotics that each patient is on, and whether they are the right antibiotics. Every single day, for every single patient. That's how important antibiotics are. So if they don't taste nice, it's way down the list, and having them on an empty stomach is just tough.