Anti antibiotics

Let me begin by saying I am NOT a fan of antibiotics unless absolutely necessary. I feel that antibiotics, like many Many MANY other prescriptions are handed out like candy and cause a LOT more problems than they solve. Yes, I am pretty passionate about this so I won’t go off on a tangent, that’s a story for a whole other blog…

The moral of the story is that Annabelle had a pretty bad ear infection and ofcourse was given antibiotics. The one and only time I’ve had an ear infection (ironically while I was pregnant) I took large amounts of garlic pills, vitamin C and garlic oil in my ear. Yes, I smelled like a large, pregant garlic clove.

Since I can’t ask a 4 month old if her ear is feeling better I chose to give her antibiotics rather than risk losing her hearing. I did make her smell like a little garlic clove too, after all she is my mini me. Did the garlic oil in the ear help with the ear pain? who knows, but it made me feel better. Two rounds of antibiotics later and the ear infection was alive and kicking and we moved on to injectable antibiotics – 1 shot in each leg for 3 days- not a fun experience.

If you’ve ever taken a large amount of antibiotics you know that they cause yeast infections. They kill bacteria, including good bacteria in our gut, hence the yeast infection. NOTE: A yeast infection on a baby looks like a really really bad, blotchy, red diaper rash. How was I supposed to know it wasn’t diaper rash? At least now you know. So to kill a yeast infection you can either use prescription medication or try one of these nifty remedies that I got from several different people along the way (because once you have a baby that’s all you talk about).

Probiotics!!! 1-I gave Annabelle a tbsp. of plain, organic yogurt everyday (don’t do this without checking with your pediatrician)

2-I put probiotics in her breast milk (I used powdered probiotics but you can just open up a capsule) and if your lucky enough to not have had to introduce a bottle you can put the probiotics on your nipple before breast feeding (sexy right?).

3- I sprinkled probiotics on her diaper! and I mixed it in with calendula diaper rash cream! I should have probably started this as soon as I started her on antibiotics but didn’t know about it until she got the yeast infection. Maybe it would have helped prevent it?

Magic concoction: Mix together diaper rash cream with a little bit of lamasil and cortisone and use as diaper rash cream. Be careful with the amount of cortisone and don’t use for more than 3-5 days, cortisone can enter the blood stream and cause problems with bone growth and development (I have no proof, I just heard that from a pediatrician).

So there you go, there are your remedies of the day. Post if you have any other tips!!! The more the merrier!