“Infancy is a vulnerable period for many things,” said Dr. Stephen Cook, an associate professor of pediatrics and community health at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
“This is a recent cohort, it’s large and worth noticing,” he told Reuters Health by phone. He added that it’s nearly impossible to directly test this theory with human children, but studies in animals have found that antibiotic use leads to weight gain.
Cook, who is also a member of the executive committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Section on Obesity, was not part of the new study.
Pediatricians are focused now on making sure they only prescribe antibiotics when the child really needs them, and on picking the right drug with the least effect on other bacteria in the body, he said.
Children get more fevers and similar illnesses as infants and toddlers, Bailey said, and it’s the most common age for ear infections, which have traditionally been a reason to use antibiotics.
But recent evidence indicates that antibiotics may not offer much benefit for ear infections among children (see Reuters story of November 17, 2010 here: reut.rs/YCeNnu).
Doctors are more likely to give very young infants antibiotics because they may get serious infections right after birth, before their immune systems have a chance to adapt to the world around them, Bailey said.