Babies given antibiotics likely to suffer allergies

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Babies given antibiotics likely to suffer allergies

By Lucy BeaumontOctober 1, 2003

Schoolchildren are more likely to have allergies and asthma if treated with antibiotics as babies, a US study presented at the European Respiratory Society conference in Vienna said.

If children were given antibiotics in their first six months, their chances of having allergies by school age increased 1.5 times, rising by 2.5 times for asthma, according to research by Cole of Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital.

Asthma experts in Australia said the research added credence to the idea that babies' immune systems needed germ contact for proper development.

The head of The Alfred hospital's asthma and allergy service Jo s said the study was the first she had seen linking early antibiotic use to the theory. "There is evidence that exposure to infections in the early years of life may be protective for the development of allergic diseases," Dr s said.

The risks increased for babies breastfed for more than four months by mothers with allergies or asthma, the study, which observed 448 children from birth to seven years of age, found. Those children's risk was three times higher than for children who had not taken antibiotics before six months.

Researchers found a lower risk of allergy or asthma if children lived with at least two pets through their first year of life.

Antibiotics had a stronger effect on the stomach and intestinal tract in a child's first months and had a lasting effect on the immune system, researchers said.

Abramson, associate professor of epidemiology and preventive medicine at Monash University, said that babies' contact with organisms via the gastrointestinal tract was thought to establish their immune response.

Antibiotic use could be a factor in Australia's high asthma and allergy rates and international comparisons were under way to test this theory, he said.

Dr called for no general prescribing of antibiotics for babies.

- with agencies