anti- antibiotics?

A letter that I wrote to our friend that was making me feel guilty for not putting our 1 1/2 year old on antibiotics. I know it wasn’t our friends’ fault….It was me being defensive because I felt mis-understood. I guess I am posting this because it is helpful for me to write our feelings on western medicine vs. natural care without intervention.

Thank you for trusting our mama papa instinctual love and care. We have done SO much research on health and antibiotics, etc. Maybe too much for our own good! haha!! We needed to go the five days without antibiotics for our sake and Gavin’s sake. We needed to make sure that it wasn’t a virus and that it was bacterial. It is unfortunate that the doctor here can’t do tests that we would have been able to do in the states, like take blood and tell us if it was bacterial or viral. We really do not feel okay about giving antibiotics before we know what the illness is. Of course we don’t like seeing our son sick or uncomfortable either. But this is part of life, too.  And giving antibiotics too soon REALLY compromises the system….I’m sure this is just the first of many viruses and bacterial infections he is going to experience in the next few years. I want Gavin to have a killer immune system that will respond to antibiotics if REALLY needed. I also want his body to be able to heal on it’s own when exposed to something like the flu, cold or viral infection. We believe that antibiotics are waaay over used AND misused many times in our society. At the same time, I am very grateful for Western Medicine and the tools it gives us. In saying that- I am so grateful that we had this experience. I feel totally okay about giving him the antibiotics because we let his body TRY to get rid of what it had- but it wasn’t possible in 5 days and it turned into a bacterial infection because of the climate here and his body being so small. I don’t regret a thing, and am really proud of myself and Spencer for being conscious parents that are trusting our son’s body, while also doing a shit load of research and monitoring. It’s been a VERY interesting 5 days! :):)