Question: Salam doctors, we are currently staying in Saudi Arabia. I have a baby girl aged 8 months and i am still fully breastfeeding her (she just started to consume some solid food like purees). Recently, my baby had a fever and we were given Augmentin (antibiotic) as one of the medications. Due to consuming the antibiotic for 3 days, my baby suffered from skin rash on her face and some parts of the body and mild diarrhea with watery discharge. Pertaining to that also, i stopped giving her the antibiotic since my reading from the internet on side effects of Augmentin says so. My questions would be; (1) did i do right by stopping her the medication? (2) are we as a parent have the right to be informed with the side effects of the medications given? (3) i am still breastfeeding her, does she need antibiotic instead?
Answer: I understand your worry about the antibiotic’s side effect. However , i do wonder why your daughter was given the antibiotics.Did the doctor tell you the source of infection as fever basically means there’s infection somewhere in the body. There must be a source of fever for example ears, throat , lungs, bowel etc. I cannot advise you whether your decision was right or otherwise as i do not know whether the diarrhoea and rash was a part of the infection or antibiotics. A lot of infection in children also present with diarrhoea and rash as well and may present a few days after the onset of fever. The doctor will be able to tell whether the rash is because of allergy or not.
Having said that , you could stop the antibiotic if you are worried and see the doctor again. He will tell you why he started the antibiotic hopefully i.e source of infection . Yes, you have the right to be informed. Most often the doctor would ask if your child has any known allergy towards antibiotics. Side effects from antibiotics is common as it is with other medications and most are pretty mild.
Although you are breastfeeding your child and it helps with building immunity , not all infection can be settled by this alone. Most often , if the fever is mild and the child is well-looking , active with no worrying signs, antibiotics are not needed as often it is viral in origin . Antibiotics fights against bacteria mainly.
Hope this helps, Do discuss with your doctor and let him/her reaxamine yr child again .