[amyandelle]

Elle was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection. They gave her an injected dose of antibiotics (after they assured me that she absolutly needed it or she might end up in the hospital) and she also has a prescription of antibiotics that we start tonight. They are doing a culture to make sure that what ever bacteria she has will respond to the medication prescribed but they don't want to wait until they get the results back to start treating her so if we need to change her antibiotics they will call me on Sat or Sun when they get the results in. They also want to test her for Urinary Reflux next week. If she has Urinary Reflux she will need to be on a low dose antibiotic until she outgrows the condition which could take a year or longer!

So here are my concerns...

I have read that anyone who is on antibiotics or has been on antibiotics in the last 3 months has a higher chance of getting Meningitis so does this mean that I should vax her with Prevnar and HIB once this infection is gone especially if she will be on the antibiotics for a long period of time?

Isn't it really bad in general to be on antibiotics for long periods of time? They said it is necessary to prevent her from getting more infections and to prevent permanant kidney damage. I have looked it up on the web and it seems that the information they gave me is correct.

How much will the antibiotics effect her immune system?

What can I do in addition to breastfeeding to keep her healthy while she is on the antibiotics and for the 3 months following?

Thanks,
Amy

 

[LiamnEmma]

That information is correct as I know it as well. My dd had reflux on the left side, grade 5 (there are five grades, one is the mildest, five is the most severe) and was also on low grade antibiotics for about one year. What I actually found was that she was more healthy during that year of infancy than my ds was. I don't know if the antibiotics had a prophylactic effect on either bacteria as well, if she was lucky, or if her daycare was better in terms of health consciousness than ds' was. The antibiotics she was on were pretty specific to UTIs, and she did ultimately gain immunity to the first one she was on--Septra, a sulfa med--but I was told by a nurse friend that over time she would lose her immunity to it. I don't know if she has, she has never had reason to take it again since that time. We also bf, and I pumped while at work, so she exclusively drank breastmilk until she started solids, sometime close to the age of one year. She had reparative surgery at 14 months.

Yeah, I agree, the idea of continual antibiotics is not at all appealing, but I felt it was better than having kidney damage, since one needs ones kidneys to live. That's my take on it. I know others have more courage than me and used other methods, and that's great too. But the low-dose antibiotics felt best for our family. Hang in there. There are a few of us here who have been on this road. It will resolve eventually, one way or the other.

Oh. And the antibiotic thing until the results come in. We also had this experience, but I found that I needed to call in and request the results, there was sometimes a communication lag in terms of discussing results with me.