Should we give our infant a preventative course of antibiotics without a definite diagnosis?

Hi everyone,

My wife was bitten by a tick last summer, in her early second trimester of pregnancy. She got sick at the time, but thought it was just morning sickness.

Now, we have had our beautiful little girl, and she is nine weeks old. Just last week, my wife's knees really started hurting, she started feeling tired, and a rash appeared on her rear. An ELISA test was positive for Lyme.

So, we are probably going to do the full course of antibiotics, as well as some alternative treatments as well (herbs, mega-dose of C, silver, etc.)

Here's the question we have:

We are worried that my wife may have passed the Lyme to our baby. Our baby was small at birth, at is slightly jaundiced. However, we are unsure about the efficacy of the testing methods, especially because she has no symptoms.

Should we push for a preventative regiment of anti-biotics to give to her, even without a positive diagnosis? Do you think that the chance of preventing significant harm later outweighs the risks of giving such a small baby (11 lbs) such strong drugs?

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this, and I thank you in advance for any advice you might have.

Sincerely,
Sasha Shepherd


P.S. One side note is that we live in Korea, where Lyme disease doesn't exist and most doctors don't speak English. So an additional factor is that we don't have good access to a Lyme specialist.

A LLMD would be best at answering those questions. That is a very delicate question. If it were me, I would wait and see if your daughter has symptoms. Like Traveler said, there are risks with using high doses of antibiotics, especially on an infant. That's just my opinion though. A doctor would be best at answering this for you.

Btw, I'm so sorry you even have to make a decision like that.

I had chronic lyme when I got pregnant with my daughter. She is 23 months now and in perfect health. I had her tested when she was born and again at 1 year with a western blot just to be safe. From my lyme specialist, and high risk pregnancy ob/gyn, the risk they told me of passing lyme was small. Yes, it can be passed from mother to fetus, but the risk they told me anyway, was low.

I wouldn't stress over it too much. Watch your baby and look for signs and it is always good to test to give you peace of mind, but no, I wouldn't give (and can't imagine any dr doing so) an infant antiotics without cause for them.

I don't worry at all anymore that my daughter could possibly have lyme. If I ever see any signs, I will jump on it, but she is a perfectly happy, healthy litlte girl and she too was jaundice at birth. That is very common and not lyme related.

I was diagnosed in 1998 by the way and my daughter was born in 2008.

Jeminij said...
I had chronic lyme when I got pregnant with my daughter. She is 23 months now and in perfect health.

I was curious about one thing. Were you taking a course of ABX while pregnant?

I was given abx during my pregnancy, but I always wondered how much actually got into my system. I had a horribly sick pregnancy with extreme morning sickness so I couldn't keep anything down for the first 6 months (including water). I took them as much as I could, but would get sick and they would come back up (sorry).

The antibiotic they give is amoxicillin. Safe for the baby and mother.

Lyme disease is all over the world. It is taken all over the place by the 150 million birds that migrate in the USA alone. Gemany, England, Japan, everyone has a problem with this bacteria.
You have a 11 pound baby who has no symptoms. Do not give your baby any drugs. You do not medicate a baby that is fine. Ever.
Lyme can be passed from mother to child in the womb and breast feeding. My daughter was born with it. But her immune system can handle it.
Be sure to keep your baby on a healthy diet so that her immune system stays strong and she stays healthy.