[dallbee]

I've found this difficult as well, my mother always jumped right to antibiotics and it had some pretty clear long term consequences.

My approach with my kids has been to use antibiotics only if there's no progression (better or worse). I figure as long as it appears the immune system is doing its job, that's enough for most cases.

So far, we've given our 3-year antibiotics on two occasions. Once for an ear infection that wouldn't clear and for when he had pneumonia.

[pfisch]

> I've found this difficult as well, my mother always jumped right to antibiotics and it had some pretty clear long term consequences.

How could this possibly be true that there were clear long term consequences? How could you reasonably know if there were long term consequences from antibiotic use?

Which antibiotics cause what and how do you know they are the cause?

[NotGMan]

How do you know it wasn't the antibiotics?

You can find many people online whose health (gut most often) got destroyed after a round of antibiotics.

You obviously won't see this in studies, look for individuals: many such cases.