back to school illnesses

Yikes!

Sniffles and coughs but not much worse.  I am steering clear of Houston for awhile.  Good luck!

I'm telling ya - Simple Green!

Just not starter fluid.

A Mexican lady who works for me makes a compress of garlic and sticks it in their ear.

(gah, double.)

The garlic thing rocks, it really helps with ear infections *as long as the ear does not have drainage!**

Sautee up 2-3 chopped cloves in a cup or two of olive oil... make sure it gets good and garlicy, but don't boil.  Set aside to cool, strain out all solids (cheesecloth).  When ready to use, warm it up just a bit and soak cotton balls in the stuff.  Put the cotton balls *loosely* in the ears.  Your kids' heads will smell like garlic and salad dressing, but garlic is a natural anti-EVERYTHING and the slight warmth will also help ease the pain and encourage the infection to break up. 

Also, if you are nursing a little one with an ear infection, squirt some breastmilk in there.   I know, it sounds bizarre, but it works.  Same with eye and tear duct infections, and pink eye.

Finally the FDA is starting to encourage doctors NOT to use antibiotics for every ear infection!  (edited: just happy about that because lots of minor infections dont' need antibiotics, and good doctors should know the diff instead of doing blanket-coverage scrips, you know?)

My other favorite for little and big kids alike is AIRBORNE.  Fizzy-drink tabs you can get at CVS or Target or lots of other drugstores - tons of vitamin C and other good stuff that helps you both head off a cold before you get it (ie., the start of the school year) or minimize it after it's already started to get ya.  They make Airborne Jr. now too, grape and with vitamin C dosage reasonable for the kiddos.  Works like a champ!

(Mine is in daycare, we need all the help we can get...)

Here's to few illnesses this year and quick recoveries if you do catch a bug!!!

~Christine

The FDA has nothing to do with physician prescribing habits.

As you described, the problem is with physicians who give out scripts for everything.  Part of the reason for that is patient expectation.  We are certainly not taught to give out antibiotics for things that are likely viral.  I would imagine that most docs practice this way until they tire of fighting with people who simply expect a script for every little thing.  It's not going to go away unfortunately.

Sorry Derek ... on re-read that does sound dumb on my part   What I meant was exactly what you said with far more clarity than I could say it!  (Yesterday was a very long, car breaking down in Brooklyn, long state regulator meeting, getting stuck in traffic on every road imaginable, almost not making to daycare on time to pick up my son, dog having loose poop all over my family room kind of day for me!!)

Anyway, I imagine what I was thinking of was this:

http://www.webmd.com/content/article/106/108366.htm# and the Pediatrics article it came from, and the CDC's recent update as well.  CDC, not FDA.  Duh, me. http://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/community/

Cathleen, it sounds like you have something entirely different going on there, and I hope I didn't offend by implying you shouldn't give your kids antibiotics for those awful ear infections!!  It's definitely not what I meant.  And yeah, I wouldn't use the garlic oil for the ones that have tubes, that's why I said 'no drainage' - gotta protect those eardrums!

I'll take a nap before I post next time, promise 

Your post was fine.  You just meant the CDC.  

The problem is bacteria developing resistances to antibiotics.  The more antibiotics are used, the more likely a mutation will develop in bacteria that will lead to resistance.

People carry bugs on and in their bodies that cause disease under certain cirumstances.  It's those bugs that we worry about when docs give out antibiotics for complaints that are most likely viral in nature.  Now if those bugs that are hanging around develop resistance and eventually make you sick, you're more likely to have a bug that's resistant to those antibiotics.

Advertising is a whole other monster.  It certainly increases patient demand for drugs.  Our only saving grace at this point is that there don't seem to be as many advertisement for antibiotics as there are for a lot of other drugs. 

I have seen HTM's oldest, when she was maybe 2, go from just fine, to holding her ear and whining a bit, to full out pillow soaking discharge in about 10 hours.   ( I am the Aunt Mary to these goobers). 

Saute the garlic in simple green?

Ok, I am obsessed.