Question
My child has been experiencing severe diarrhea, vomiting frequently, and has lost their appetite. The hospital’s diagnosis is rotavirus. Can we treat them with antibiotic medications?
Answer
Children with rotavirus should minimize the use of antibiotic medications. Surprisingly, antibiotics not only fail to accelerate recovery but can also exacerbate diarrhea caused by lactose intolerance! Therefore, it is prohibited to use any antibiotics for children with rotavirus diarrhea unless they have a concurrent bacterial infection! It is highly inappropriate to administer broad-spectrum antibiotics to such patients without evidence of a concurrent bacterial infection.