Infants Given Antibiotics at Risk for Allergy

Tuesday, September 30th, 2003

Interesting. From Infants Given Antibiotics at Risk for Allergy:

Treating infants with antibiotics seems to increase their risk of developing childhood diseases like eczema and allergic asthma, a new study suggests.
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Her team reviewed the medical records of 445 children participating in an HMO-based study in the Detroit area. Almost half of the children had been treated with an antibiotic in the first 6 months of life. The children were followed for the development of allergic conditions until age 6 and 7 when they were evaluated by an allergist.

Children who had been treated with an antibiotic were 1.5 times more likely to have allergies and 2.5 times more likely to have allergic asthma by the age of 7, compared with children not given antibiotics in infancy.

The link between early antibiotic exposure and the development of allergy and asthma was stronger in children whose mothers had similar conditions, and among children who did not have pets in the home.

This finding on household pets supports the “hygiene hypothesis,” which holds that early exposure in life to bacterial infection and bacterial products prevents the development of allergic disease. Early antibiotic use may influence the gastrointestinal tract and alter the development of the maturing immune system.

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