AIBU to not finish DS' antibiotics?

[Tinkerbellisnotafairy]

DS (5yo) was diagnosed with an ear infection at the beginning of the week. His ear had been hurting for about 6 days, which is why we took him to the dr - usually I'm a fan of wait it out as it tends to be viral.

The dr specifically said that the antibiotics he prescribed were not to cure the ear infection, which should clear up on its own, but to prevent any secondary infection.

DS had 2 days of the antibiotics, and then the bottle was left at school, so he was without two or three doses. His ear hadn't hurt at all for over 24 hours so we decided not to give him any more ABs - he's quite sickly so tends to need them fairly often, so I'd rather not give him them when they're not necessary IYSWIM.

My DM kicked off at me, saying that I was jeopardising DS' health, and that I shouldn't argue with what the dr said.

AIBU? Or is she?

Always finish the course. The aim is to kill all the bacteria good and dead. If you give them a break from the antibiotic in the middle, then they start to develop resistance and will be harder to kill in later iterations. Your son will be fine, but in 20 years when there are no effective antibiotics left (or only ones that cause ototoxicity, phototoxicity etc) he might state a wish that you and all other parents had just finished the course.

To be completely fair to you, animals are routinely dosed with prophylactic antibiotics in the USA, with bacteria having ample opportunity to develop resistance in the slurry, and in many countries you can buy antibiotics in ones and twos so there's no 'course' to speak of. Viewed in that light, we're all fucked so it doesn't really matter what you do anyway.

You should finish the prescription. I got a secondary infection after an ear infection. It was celluitis and the side of my face swelled up and I ended up in hospital for three days on various drips of antibiotics and painkillers. Not fun!
If your ds does have a secondary infection then finishing the course could prevent him being poorly. Of course chances are he doesn't and he will be fine but I would take the doctor's advice.

For those telling the OP to finish the course, have you read that several doses have been missed.

OP, seek some proper advice on this.

I was told very recently by my doctor, that the thinking now is you don't need to finish a course.

YABU she needs to finish the course of antibiotics because not all of the bacteria may have been killed. these bacteria will be able to reproduce and will carry the adaptation of being resistant to her antibiotics so if she gets it another time, the antibiotics may not work/work as well.

Yes agree with Random, this is exactly what the article from the NHS website says.

And antibiotic prescribing like this goes against all current prescribing guidelines & contributes towards bacterial resistance
(of course if there are underlying medical conditions then things can be different)

I think in the presence of a proven bacterial infection, then you should always finish the course.

My children have many times been prescribed antibiotics and have never had a swab taken. In some instances, I have read up and suspected the illness was viral and I have adopted a wait and see approach and every time they got better without the antibiotics. I think much more of a problem is the seemingly routine prescription of antibiotics for viral illness. And in fact, in most cases, bacterial illnesses do not need them either.

YABVU and very irresponsible. Of course he seems fine now, but he won’t be fine in the future when antibiotics don’t work anymore because you’ve been so careless.

You always need to finish your course of antibiotics; it is extremely important for your health, your sons health and everyone else’s. You are part of the problem. Don’t be.

Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats we are facing for our future. YABVVVU.

www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jul/26/rule-patients-must-finish-antibiotics-course-wrong-study-says