- Daily & Weekly newsletters
- Buy & download The Bulletin
- Comment on our articles
Related articles
Recent
Popular
Half of babies and toddlers receive too many antibiotics
Half of the children under age three in Belgium receive antibiotics at least once a year, report Het Nieuwsblad and De Standaard based on new figures from the Independent Health Insurance Funds.
The funds collaborated on the 2014 study which analysed medicine use among 70,403 children under three years of age. The results show that no other drug is more widely prescribed for children as antibiotics. In second place are aerosols and other medication for respiratory diseases such as asthma.
According to experts, it is important for parents and doctors to practice more patience when children are sick. "Infants generally come down with a cold six to eight times a year. In general, though, a child who has a cough for a few days but sleeps, eats and plays normally, usually does not need medication," says pediatric pulmonologist at UZ Leuven Kris De Boeck in the newspapers.
The Independent Health Insurance Funds are calling for clearer guidelines for doctors about antibiotics. According to public health minister Maggie De Block, overuse of antibiotics in young children is a shared responsibility of doctors and pharmacists, but also the parents. "Parents should be prepared to invest time and effort into seeking out alternative treatments, instead of immediately asking for a quick fix in the form of medicine," says De Block.
Comments
Apsolutely terrible practice used to shut up parents who want a sick child back in crèche. I can't believe this is still happening in the age of MRSA
doctors need to learn to educate parents on when to worry if a child is ill and use of anti fever methods.
Most infants deal well with colds coughs and fevers from viruses.
Viruses do t get better from antibiotics and people need to be told that I was a children's nurse we spent a lot of time educating people in this way but that 25 years ago and in the UK now it's more difficult to get a quick fix from a good GP
In Brussels at least, the few good GPs are overloaded with patients and turn down new ones, the bad GPs have time because they are incompetent. So for the sake of expediency (first group) and due to the inability to diagnose (second group), they just prescribe antibiotics and everyone is happy. As CC_R says, antibiotics don't have any effect on viruses but most people here don't know that. With a prescription, the doctors feel they have 'done something' to earn their money and patients feel their doctor has 'helped them'.