Prescribing Antibiotics For Children Under Two Can Expose Them To Obesity

Small children should not be given antibiotics unless they absolutely need it. A new study shows that giving antibiotics early leads to childhood obesity.

Scientists examined the link between antibiotic use before the age of two as well as at the age of four among 21,714 children. The information was collected from The Health Improvement Network, which gathered data on more than 10 million people in the United Kingdom from 1995 to 2013.

Those who were given antibiotics before two showed a 1.2 "absolute increased risk" of obesity. The relative risk of obesity for this group was 25 percent higher than the risk for children who were not given antibiotics. The risk increased with antibiotic prescriptions, and antifungal agents did not expose the children to obesity.

"Antibiotics have been used to promote weight gain in livestock for several decades, and our research confirms that antibiotics have the same effect in humans," said Frank Irving Scott, an assistant professor of medicine at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora.

One theory for the possible link with obesity is that the drugs may be changing the children's gut microbiome, which plays an important role in development of obesity, according to several studies

"Our work supports the theory that antibiotics may progressively alter the composition and function of the gut microbiome, thereby predisposing children to obesity as is seen in livestock and animal models," Scott said.

"Our results do not imply that antibiotics should not be used when necessary, but rather encourage both physicians and parents to think twice about antibiotic usage in infants in the absence of well-established indications," Scott said.

The study was published in the American Gastroenterological Association journal, Gastroenterology.