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Antibiotics not best for ear infections - journal

The Best Thing You Can Do for Mothers, Babies, Birth and Families is to Become Net Savvy!

I just had my mind expanded this morning by Laureen Hudson's hour long online session on how to use the internet to get a message out. Laureen's session “Creating an Online Presence," gave me a wealth of information in a short time and impressed me with how many people are out there who completely rely on the internet for their information. I needed that, and maybe you do, too.  

  - Ina May Gaskin 

 I just hung up the phone from doing the hour long session with Laureen Hudson on “Creating an Online Presence”.  Laureen’s know-how and expertise were enough to wake up even the birth oldtimers like me and Ina May to the many unused opportunities of the internet.  Laureen’s engaging and easygoing teaching style made even those scary (to me) terms like “hypertext, streaming, wordpress, technorati, feedreader and trackback” start to make sense.  Her passion is to reach the generation of young women who have not yet given birth BEFORE they fall into the black hole of aggressive obstetrics.  I came away from the class today with lots of ways to improve my website and make it more modern, usable and interesting for readers.  This class will run again this coming Friday (August 22) and I heartily recommend it.  
- Gloria Lemay


 
REGISTER NOW! SPACE IS LIMITED! 

Cost: $35 per session 

Each session will be 60 minutes in length 

Creating An Online Presence
Sunday, September 7 at 5:00 p.m. Pacific / 8:00 p.m. Eastern
Friday, September 19 at 12:00 p.m. Pacific / 3:00 p.m. Eastern
Monday, September 22 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific / 12:00 p.m. Eastern 

Search! 
This session will include a case study of Dr. Amy and how we shoot ourselves in the collective feet by visiting and commenting on her website.  (PS Hope you enjoyed the Gotcha! page from our last email!)
Sunday, October 5 at 5:00 p.m. Pacific / 8:00 p.m. Eastern
Friday, October 24 at 12:00 p.m. Pacific / 3:00 p.m. Eastern
Monday, October 27 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific / 12:00 p.m. Eastern   

From: C-reuters@clari.net (Reuters)
Subject: Antibiotics not best for ear infections - journal
Organization: Copyright 1997 by Reuters
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 1997 8:21:05 PDT
LONDON (Reuter) - Antibiotics are not the best treatment for middle ear infections and doctors should stop routinely prescribing drugs for them, international experts said Friday.

Although middle ear infections can be distressing -- with a crying, inconsolable child clearly in pain -- antibiotics may only do harm, they said.

Larry Culpepper of Boston University and a team of other doctors from the Netherlands, Britain and the United States said needlessly dosing children with drugs had helped antibiotic-resistant organisms to evolve.

They examined studies on treating middle ear infections and concluded that the antibiotics were a waste of time for most children.

``Placebo studies indicate that more than 80 percent of children with acute otitis media (middle ear infection) recover without antimicrobials,'' they wrote in a paper for the British Medical Journal.

``Existing research offers no compelling evidence that children with acute otitis media routinely given antimicrobials have a shorter durations of symptoms, fewer recurrences, or better long-term outcomes than those who do not receive them.''

In fact, giving the drugs could be harmful, they said.

``Antimicrobial use in children with otitis media results in the emergence of resistant organisms in those children and in the community,'' they wrote.

Tests showed children routinely given drugs such as ampicillin tested positive for strains of influenza- and pneumonia-causing microbes resistant to drug therapy.

Despite this, ear infections were the most common reason antibiotics were prescribed to outpatients, and 97 percent of children with ear infections in Britain were prescribed drugs.

Researchers said a better approach would be prevention. Tobacco smoke is a known aggravator of ear infections, and babies who are breast-fed are less prone to them.

Encouraging hand-washing in day-care centres and elsewhere would also help prevent the spread of bugs that cause the infections, they added.



This Web page is referenced from another page containing related information about Miscellaneous Newborn Care

 




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