As if we don’t have enough to worry about, now a new study indicates the possibility that heavy antibiotic use in the early years can increase the risk of lymphoma.  This seems to be a hypothesis at this point, and for many illnesses, we have no choice but to give our kids antibiotics, but still, it is frustrating to receive conflicting messages from the medical community.  It was not long ago that another study found daycare kids to have stronger immune systems.  The research is not conclusive on whether antibiotic use actually causes higher risk, or if the underlying inflammation and infections are the real culprit.  Hopefully they’ll figure it out soon, because this type of finding is very significant to those of us with small children.

Yahoo! brings us the results of this study, and it is a good reminder for parents to make sure we understand what medications are being prescribed and why.  When you are low on sleep and your doctor writes a prescription to make it better, it is really hard to find strength to ask questions, but as we’re seeing, treatment regimens may have long term effects that go unnoticed.