Pat wrote:

>The doc at the hospital said that if one takes abx orally, then yeast can
>be a problem, but if given intramuscularly there wouldn't be a yeast
>problem following, because it is not in the GI tract.  Is this "evidence
>based"?  Or just pulled from a hat to make sure that the mom did as he
>recommended?

Okay, I CANNOT be tactful here:  that is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
 Are oral antibiotics only prescribed for GI infections?  Are intramuscular
antibiotics given for muscular infections?  Must antibiotics be injected
into the middle ear space in order to treat otitis media?  If the baby had
been found to have meningitis, would the doc have injected antibiotics into
the baby's BRAIN?

Antibiotics kill bacteria - what sort of bacteria depends on the
antibiotics - wherever they live in the body.  Yeast lives in our bodies in
balance with good bacteria, ALL the time.  Yeast overgrowth occurs when the
'good' bacteria in the gut (mouth or wherever) are killed by the
antibiotic, allowing the monilia that's normally there in small quantities
to grow out of control.

This mom was right to question the injection.  Just in last week's news,
there was a report about four babies/ young children dying in the US
midwest from MRSA: methicillin-resistant staph aureus.  The article I read
(sorry, can't remember where) indicated that researchers at the CDC felt
this was just the first taste of much more to come due to the gross overuse
of antibiotics, especially in children.

So yeah, if she was irresponsibly coerced to consent to unnecessary
antibiotics for her baby, she definitely should be practicing preventive
precautions for yeast.  <sigh>

Mary Renard, RN, BSN, IBCLC
Vienna, Virginia  USA
thinking, hmmmmm, better find some tact before my two medical school
admissions interviews next month.....

PS  Okay, I thought of a tactful comment:  IF there remained some concern
about meningitis despite the negative workup, then perhaps it is standard
practice to administer antibiotics.  Certainly meningitis is far riskier
than monilia.  However, the rationale should have been stated differently.
Saying that yeast can't be caused by IM abx is just stupid.  Whoops <smack
to head>  tact! remember tact!

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