The Steroids and Antibiotics Generation

Why are my kindergarten (and grade school) kids so sickly ? I’ve never come across such a bunch of unhealthy children. Coughing and spluttering like little Marlboro Men. Get them to do half an hour’s PE, and you need a crash team to get them back to the classroom. And most of them haven’t the strength to lift their enormous water bottles up to their mouths. (Why do they drink 6 litres of water a day ?)

Why are they constantly sick ? Why do they take so much medicine ? I had a 5-yr-old kid taking steroids for a cough. Out of 13 kids I have 10 on antibiotics. Can you give antibiotics to a 3-yr-old in the UK ? Sledgehammer. Nut. Are the doctors on commission from the chemists here ?

Yes, through the joy of “black hole pricing” as it is known in the Amcham white paper.

My kids take so many drugs, that it’s quite scary, a nation of pill, syrup and powder takers. Reminds me of what Victorian England would be like with heroin, cocaine and laudanum freely available instead of antibiotics, dodgy Chinese medicine and steroids.

My morning class is quite active and can last a while. They get a lot of park and activity time. My afternoon class sounds like an asthamtic wing in a hospital after 5 minutes of TPR. My co-teachers are still horrified that I don’t/won’t see a doctor for every little thing and the fact that I have such a low opinion of them. Just the joys of socialized medicine.

CYA
Okami

I was on antibiotics last week for a sinus infection. I was a little concerned because I’m breastfeeding but it’s also approved as a pediatric antibiotic. I was wondering what else one can do for a bacterial infection besides taking antibiotics. Anything???

Some essential oils such as Ti-tree (tea-tree) oil and lavender oils have anti-bacterial qualities. You could try putting your head over a bowl of hot water, putting a drop of one of the above oils in, putting a towel over your head and breathing deeply for five minutes. That would at least make you feel more comfortable and could speed recovery.

But if you have a bacterial infection that is the correct time to be taking antibiotics. I would be quite wary of trying to ‘do without’. And of course, once you’ve started on a course of antibiotics, you must finish the full course.

The main problem with over-prescription of antibiotics is that they are often given for conditions which they cannot possibly help, e.g. viral infections such as colds. This is partly due to demand from patients, and has been the case up until recently in a large number of countries including the UK. It is only in the last few years that information campaigns have been launched and public awareness of the dangers of antibiotic overuse has started to improve.
The doctors I know and use here never prescribe antibiotics when not strictly necessary. One of them is actually a pediatric specialist.

I am not sure if all of the people in this thread are from Taiwan, but one possible reason why the kids are so sickly is the declining air quality.

There is a lot of particulate matter and organic solvents from uncombusted petrol in the Taiwanese city air. Children are exposed to this contaminated air almost constantly from birth.

I am hypothesizing, but if you draw parallels with the effects of long term cigarette smoking, you may see some similarities.

Long term cigarette smokers suffer from many immune defficiencies and from respiratory system degeneration - particulary the cillia in the respiratory tracts. These cillia remove the particulate matter from the lungs and the respiratory tracts. If the cillia die, the inhaled and self-generated (dead cells) particulate matter does not get cleared, leading to frequent coughing and respiratory infections. The particulate matter provides good breeding ground for bacteria.

Of course, it is not this simple, but iit stands to reason that breathing contaminated air cannot be good for anyone in the long term.

Victor

My own personal opinion is that the kids aren’t getting enough EXERCISE. Sedentary lifestyles and overstudy are depressing the kids immune systems. We see this problem the world over.
The air conditioning systems are also playing a large part in recycling viruses and bacteria through the schools.

When I was a kid all I did was run around. I couldn’t understand why people would walk when you could just run. I only got light colds and I dont remember having the flu, at least if I got it it had hardly any effect. At lunch break we played tennis ball. We cycled or walked home. We played football after school. We also did sports on the weekend.

Unfortunately it’s not easy to run around and play here and it’s dangerous because of the motor vehicles.

I noticed since I got what is mostly a desk job a couple of years ago my health has deteriorated in almost direct correlation with the amount of exercise I am doing. It’s also got something to do with the air con systems I suspect. Recently it has been categorically proven that installing a UV light at the air con filter will cut a huge % of the colds at work.

This is of course combined with poor air quality.