Welcome back to the Blueberry Med Minute, where once a week you’ll learn something new from our Chief Pediatrician, Dr. Lyndsey Garbi. Today Dr. Garbi shares her thoughts on when children need antibiotics.

Transcript:Hey! I'm back with another med minute. This time let's talk about antibiotic use - when it's needed and when it's not.Antibiotics are meant to be for bacterial infections only which means it's not going to treat a virus which is usually what our kids have and are stick with. With their runny noses, their cough, or that postnasal drip when theytry and sleep they cough and they can't. Even red eyes and fever so these can last up to 10 days and some of them cause a clear runny nose but also can be that goopy yellow greenish runny nose as well that you think might be developing into  something or a bacterial infection.It may be at certain points, but for the overwhelming majority it's usually just viral and needs time to to pass and for you to heal for your babies to heal for your children to heal. So they need rest they need reassurance but they really don't need antibiotics for these types of things, and antibiotics do have side effects that we do want to avoid as well.More reading about antibiotics:Side effects of antibioticsCommon questions about antibiotics