Antibiotics in Newborns Increases Risk of Asthma Article

Jun 21

Antibiotics in Newborns Increases Risk of Asthma

A new study has found that the use of antibiotics in the first year of a child’s life increases the risk of the child having asthma at age 7.

This occurs because while the antibiotics destroy the sickness causing bacteria, they also are destroying elements that are essential to developing the child’s immune system.

This study was completed by examining medical (prescription) records and then looking at the status of asthma in the 7th year of the child’s life. The study found that 6% of the children had asthma by their 7th year. After analyzing the data to remove other influences that could have caused the asthma (such as maternal history of asthma, urban location, and respiratory illnesses), the study found that the use of one or two antibiotics increased the risk of asthma by approximately 20%.

Along with this statistic, the more common the antibiotic use, the higher the risk of asthma. Three to four antibiotics in the first year of life increases to 30% added risk of asthma. More than four antibiotics used increase the added risk to 50%!

The antibiotics that are thought to strongly cause the risk are “broad-spectrum” antibiotics such as cephalosporins and amoxicillin. “Narrow-spectrum” antibiotics, such as penicillin and erythromycin, were less likely to heighten the risk.

This information, however, does not mean antibiotics should be completely avoided during the first year of life. For severe infections, antibiotics are appropriate but doctors first use narrow-spectrum antibiotics to try to cure the infection and then progress to broad-spectrum antibiotics if nothing else is successful.