infant with mrsa

[leibow12]

Hello,
My daughter was diagnosed with MRSA in her eye when she was 7 weeks old. The doctor treated it with eye drops ( polymixin and gentamiicin). my doctor said she is not old enough to have antibiotics yet.
My question is WHY cant she have antbiotics to kill the virus? and WHEN will she be old enough to have them.

My second question is she had what looked like a pimple on her ear a month after she was diagnosed, so I called the DR and she advised me to put the cream mupirocin on it to be safe than sorry. Im wondering if every time I see what looks like a pimple should I just put this cream on it?

Thank you for your time.
Michelle

[Debbie Miller, RN]

Hello,
Antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest concerns of our day. While we have excellent antibiotics available now, the fact that for many years they were overprescribed and used incorrectly resulted in superinfections that do not respond to antibiotics. In defense of the prescribing doctors, we did not know in the 50s, 60s and even 70s that this might happen. We thought we had found the miracle cure for everything and so every time someone became ill they ran to the doctor who scribbled out a prescription. Thus, we came to believe that was the accepted cure for everything.

When a virus is treated with an antibiotic, it does no good since they don't work on viruses. We have to rely on our own body's antibody production to cure the illness. If we take antibiotics for viral illness and then get better, chances are it was just our own body healing in spite of the antibiotic. But the risk taken here is our body's germs become conditioned to the antibiotic (especially if we stop taking them too soon and the bugs grow stronger) and down the road they will not work for us even on a bacteria that should be susceptible. For this reason doctors are more cautious about prescribing antibiotics unless there is confirmed bacterial infection. By doing this, we can protect the usefulness of our medications.

I can't explain your doctor's reasoning about your child's age since even infants receive antibiotics when they are needed. Perhaps there was a misunderstanding as to the reason for the treatment.

For the reasons above I would NOT recommend using a medicated cream whenever your child gets a pimple. Let her immune system do its job and realize that these things are a normal part of her growth and development. Persistent problems, fever, etc. should be checked with the doctor.

Best wishes.