Antibiotics vs. yogurt: The test

2 weeks ago, my son woke up early crying and holding his ear. I knew what was wrong but of course I asked anyway, "what's wrong baby?" and he cries "my ear hurts!" So I went downstairs to see if I had anything for the pain. I found some Tylenol meltaways for children and gave him a dose of that. 30 minutes later he was calm and said his ear didn't hurt anymore. Since I knew that this was most likely because the Tylenol kicked in, I decided to take him in to see the doctor. They said his ear was slightly red and prescribed Amoxil (antibiotic) to fight the infection.

The day after, his coughing started, but at least he was already started on the antibiotic. I figured he probably caught this cold from me because I had been sick 4 days before he caught it.

1 week later, my daughter started the coughing and the runny nose. I immediately started upping her intake of yogurt (she eats yogurt as a snack everyday anyway, which is the best way to help your immune system). She coughed for a few days and there were a couple times I though I may have to take her in to the doctor, but since she has a bad history with antibiotics, I always make sure that I can't handle it first with yogurt. She didn't get worse, she got better, and her little cough lasted about 5 days and the runny nose lasted only 1.

My son on the other hand was on the antibiotics prescribed by his doctor right away, and he fought his cold for 2 weeks (he did seem like he was getting over it), but 2 days after his antibiotics were used up, he is starting to cough again!

I'm sure you are wondering, "if yogurt works so well for your daughter, why not use it on your son?" I wish it were that easy! :) He is a child that doesn't like the taste of yogurt. My daughter is easy because she eats yogurt like it's her favorite candy! Occasionally, I do buy the Edy's yogurt ice cream which does have yogurt culture in it (talked about in previous posts), but that would get expensive to buy all the time. Certainly though if it works better than antibiotics, it would be worth it.

And I hear on the news they are talking about this "super bug" that is going around", (it has spread into our county where I live). Do you know why they say that this is happening? Because of all of the antibiotics we injest that make the bugs resistant to it! That's why I try to let my kids and I if at all possible, let our bodies fight it ourselves.