Children who go through three or more courses of antibiotics before the age of two are more likely to be obese by the age of four, according to research from the American Gastroenterological Association.
"Antibiotics have been used to promote weight gain in livestock for several decades, and our research confirms that antibiotics have the same effect in humans," Frank Irving Scott, MD, assistant professor of medicine at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora and author of the study, said in a statement. "Our results do not imply that antibiotics should not be used when necessary, but rather encourage both physicians and parents to think twice about antibiotic usage in infants in the absence of well-established indications."
Among more than 1,300 children whose cases were reviewed in the research, 6.4 percent were obese by age four. Those who had been exposed to antibiotics before age two had a 1.2 percent absolute increase and a 25 percent relative increase in obesity risk. The more courses of antibiotics taken, the greater the risk of obesity for the children in the study.
The authors suggest further research is needed to determine whether their findings hold true later in life. However, other recent research has suggested the composition of gut bacteria in infants, and how it is affected by antibiotics, factors into health outcomes in later years.