Aibu in thinking ds should have gotten antiobiotics

[Crazycrazylady]

Just wanted to see what ever one else thinks..
2 weeks ago ds3 who is 5 got some sort of a tummy bug/virus thing. High temperatures , vomiting and diarrhea. He was quiet unwell with it which is unlike him as he is never sick. I took him the doctor who said he was very unwell and gave me anti nausea tablets and said to bring him back in the morning if he didn't improve . He had a good night and his temp stayed down so I was like brilliant. Done and dusted. Except it wasn't after about three days he started getting sick most days again and has explosive very (tmi) oddly coloured( almost white) diarrhea which doctor google informs me is a sign of bacterial infection. He is lethargic and eating nothing so I took him back to doctor yesterday who didn't really say much and said to stop all medication (Callie etc for tummy pain) and to bring him back in a couple of days .. I mentioned the pop and he agreed it could be a sign but would have to send poo away on Monday next to see if that was the case before he'd prescribe them. He's had another shocking night and now I'm going to have to wait unti at Least Wednesday of next week when his results are back before he will get any help. These two visits were his second and third visits to the doctor in his life and he has never had antibiotics. Aibu in thinking that there would have not been a lot of harm in prescribing antibiotics even it turns out not to be bacterial.. maybe iabu but he's exhausted and white and it doesn't appear to be going away on its own.

Yes really bad, upset internal balance, make you feel like shit, weaken your immunity, predispose to other problems, thrush being the least of these. Obvs if have pneumonia or sepsis you have them, but not routinely. Most things heal themselves.
It's not the animal or child who becomes resistant, it's the bacteria. So drugs given to anyone will later not work for others. We already have tb and sti which are almost untreatable. Yes vets and farmers overuse as preventive. Food full of the stuff. Worse after brexit.

Aibu in thinking that there would have not been a lot of harm in prescribing antibiotics even it turns out not to be bacterial

There can be a lot of harm. That’s why antibiotic resistance is a problem. The GP is doing the right thing and waiting for a stool sample. Try ice lollies and dioralyte in the meantime.

YABU. The doctor wants to wait for results before prescribing medication - A sensible thing to do.
And I say this as someone who has just got out of hospital with an 18 month old who had vomiting for 14 days and no cause was found, it’s just been out down as a long bout of gastritis

Antibiotics make lots of people puke and shit their guts out anyway, even if they are needed. You could double the symptoms by giving them in the first place, and also have tummy issues for a long time afterwards if they weren't needed/were the incorrect ones.

It is the bacteria that become resistant not the person. However if you contract a bacterial infection cause by a strain of bacteria that is resistant then no amount of antibiotics will help your immune system to fight the infection.
Clostridium difficile is a bacteria normally found in the gut and has become resistant to antibiotics. Unfortunately if you take antibiotics they kill all the other gut bacteria allowing C Difficile to rapidly take over and cause full blown infection. I’m sure a microbiologist can give you a more in-depth explanation.
However as someone who prescribes antibiotics for bacterial infections I have seen an increase in the severity of infections over the last few years resulting in increasing numbers of patients being admitted to hospital.

I wonder why vets dish them out so easily, do pets become resistant too (Serious question as I have often wondered why my pet gets them with no questions) Any vets on here?

It's not the pets (or people) that become resistant. It's the bacteria.

When you say he had a bad night, what do you mean?

Yes YABU.

If the stool samples come back that he has a raging bacterial gut infection then fair enough, you can treat with AB then.

Me and both my kids have had the most terrible virus recently. All in all it's taken about a month to recover.
At one point dd (14) had huge white spots all over her mouth and down her throat and labyrinthitis which made her dizzy. The GP said that AB's wouldn't help and she just needed rest and sleep.
She recovered after about a week.

GP was right and I'm glad we didn't have any AB's.

This idea that AB's are a cure-all is so damaging.

Thanks for all the replies ladies. I know that antibiotic resistance is a big issue but I'm not overly worried about it with him as he has never had any before.
Guess I'll just have to wait for sample to come back and hope it shows up what ever it is but have to say it's been two weeks of vomiting and diarrhea and I'm getting a bit desperate..

Are you in uk? I’d go to a children’s a and e - white poo doesn’t sound right at all

I don’t think he needs antibiotics but he definitely needs something

Crazycrazylady, as posters have explained, it's not that your son would be resistant to antibiotics- it's the bacteria which become resistant to them. So over-prescribing affects EVERYONE, regardless of whether somebody in particular (e.g. your son) has had the medical cation before or not.

I hope he feels better soon.

*medication

I know that antibiotic resistance is a big issue but I'm not overly worried about it with him as he has never had any before.

You know that antibiotic resistance relates to the bacteria and not the individual person, right? It's absolutely not the case that your child hasn't had ABs before so they can't be resistant, it's that the bacteria - which change over time to suit their environment and develop immunity to the things that will kill them - are exposed to a drug which kills them. The more times bacteria are exposed to that drug, the higher the chance of a mutation/change that is drug-resistant developing - think of the bacteria as having had more practice. Once the bacteria is resistant, it's game over for that antibiotic drug; it won't work any more at all for anyone who has picked up that bacteria or had it transmitted to them. There are painfully few new antibiotics being developed so we need to protect the ones we have, and limit their use so that bacteria have minimal chance of developing resistance.

It's a population-wide thing and ANYONE having ABs that doesn't need them causes antibiotic resistance.

So yes, you are so unreasonable in wanting ABs in this situation that it's off the fucking scale.

Her son isn't responsible for the rest of the population. If he needs the damn antibiotics he should get them. And white poo sounds pretty extreme to me. When everybody else and their granny wants them for a cold I think this boy sounds well within his rights for actual treatment. OP, don't listen to the rest of them somehow laying a national crisis at your door. Ridiculous. Your kid sounds genuinely ill, and you should not feel bad. In summary, YANBU.

Google is not a replacement for a medical degree. I'm not saying that doctors never make mistakes but please don't think that you know better just because you googled something.

YANBU to keep taking your son back in though - keep shouting about it to make sure it's being monitored. Always better to be safe than sorry.

YABU. For SOOOO many reasons

1 pale poo does NOT always indicate bacterial infection, do NOT Google symptoms if you don't know how to discern reputable sites.

2 antibiotics during an upset stomach especially if there is NO bacterial infection could well do more harm than good. They don't discriminate they kill off healthy gut bacteria too which could make it harder for your child's body to deal with the infection

3 antibiotics have side effects, one of the most common is diarrhoea, adding something that could make your child's diarrhoea WORSE could make them very ill indeed

4 antibiotic resistance is a major issue we are all responsible for.

To be honest given your comments re better days/nights and then getting worse again I'd be wondering if he's being reinfected. Are you cleaning door handles etc? Ensuring good toilet hygiene especially at this time? What are you feeding him? What drinks are you giving him?

The most common cause of recurrent tummy upsets at this age is poor hygiene somewhere along the line, mainly toilet hygiene but one that's been more common in recent years is use of "non spill" cups with too many books and crannies to clean them properly and at this age they quickly become a "favourite cup" rarely getting washed or replaced.

Your kid sounds genuinely ill

That doesn’t mean antibiotics will help. They aren’t a cure-all, they only work on bacterial infections. No bacterial infection (no matter how serious or ‘extreme’ the condition is) = no use for ABs.

And we are ALL responsible for only using ABs when necessary.

YABU. Broad spectrum antibiotics are likely to make diarrhoea worse.

He needs his liver checked.

You don’t understand what antibiotic resistance is. It’s not your son who would become resistent, it’s the microbes that live in and on him that would than pass to other people and animals - about 3lbs of mass of all of us is microbes that live in and on us all the time, we have an amazing symbiotic relationship with them.

Your son doesn’t need antibiotics, they’re unlikely to help him and would quote posssibly harm him more by upsetting the natural balance of his microbiome. We really shouldn’t be prescribing them to anyone unless absolutely necessary.

Find The Truth About Antibiotics documentary that was on recently on BBC1, it’s a good primer on the subject

Give him yakult

If the OP doesn't understand antibiotic resistance I'm guessing she doesn't have a medical degree in which case her doctor - who does - is slightly more likely to know what the medical issue is.

Of course one could say, it is her opinion he needs them and as we all know, one person's opinion is as valid as the next.

@slipperywhensparticus Independent studies of Yakult and other similar probiotic yogurt drinks don’t find any evidence of the added microbes making their way to the gut. Even if they do, there’s no way to know whether that particular microbe species will be able to flourish in your microbe community. They’re not a one size fits all

Give him yakult

Noooooo. Absolutely do not do that while he's got servere diarrhoea.

Follow your doctor's advice and seek a second opinion if unhappy.