Boosting immune system and antibiotics

[JuzaMum]

A month ago my son (then nearly 3) was admitted to hospital as he had a very nasty skin complaint with large raw peeled areas. He was diagnosed with Staphylococcal Scalded Skin Syndrome (SSSS) and treated with large doses of IV antibiotics. After 4 days he was well enough to come home with oral antibiotics. A few days ago he developed impetigo and again has antibiotics.
The doctor has recommended once his skin has cleared to cover with a microbial wash every bath time to damp down the bacteria on his skin in the hope of stopping any recurrence.
He is normally a healthy boy, was breastfed and I haven't brought him up in an over sanitised enviroment - pets and eating mud in the garden!
What can I do to boost his immune system. I hate using antibiotics but SSSS can be fatal. The wash the doctor has prescribed I assume will wash away the good bacteria on his skin as well as the bad.
Any good ideas greatfully received

Thanks

very worried JuzaMum

[Mrs H]

The only thing I can think of would be salt baths? I know my girls aged 3 and 2 r both prone to urine infections and sore bums and a regular salt bath sorts them out. I hate antibiotics but sometimes they r a necessity. Sending you all hugs and hoping it evens itself out soon. Xxx

[Zech]

I know we use far too many antibiotics these days, but they do save lives. If your son needs them, use them! Whatever you do, don't stop halfway through a prescribed course of antibiotics because that's the best way to breed resistant bugs.

Better to live in an oversanitised environment for a while (I'm assuming this won't last forever) than to let the bugs win. He will have plenty of time to build up his immunity again in the future. Don't forget that before we all got obsessed with cleanliness, we lived in dirty environments and people died a lot. We may have gone too far down the sanitisation route, but we don't want to overreact and go too far back the other way, either. Modern medicine is little short of miraculous - take full advantage of it!

[greenorelse]

Would it be worth getting some kind of nutrition-focused blood test? For instance, there are lots of stories of cancers being cured by high vitamin diets and it's possible other physiological breakdowns require an otherwise 'well' system to cure them. I dunno, just typing aloud.

I read a piece in a book about 'nutritional resilience' which had me nodding my head. Basically, food will be good to the point of the lowest denominator. For instance, if the soil is deficient in one particular element, many food crops will only take up other elements in proportion to that scarce one.

I found the article (by Bruce Darrell) online. I know I'm probably going off-topic here but it is a very readable article, especially when you get to bits like this:

While low-quality food tends to begin to decompose fairly quickly, requiring refrigeration, quick delivery, and processing, food with high nutritional density tends to last much longer and is more likely to dehydrate rather than rot. This allows a significant reduction in the amount of wasted food as well as the amount of resources, energy and infrastructure needed to store and preserve food that is produced locally. But, perhaps the greatest benefit is that nutritionally dense food tastes better — you can literally taste the greater density of sugars and minerals.

If we can produce nutrient-dense food, which people (especially children) will be more likely to want to eat because of the great taste, what does this mean for their health? Many diseases and health problems are caused or exacerbated by malnutrition, and the increasing prevalence of poor health over the past few decades seems to parallel the decline in mineral content in food over the same time period. How can people be healthy if their food is nutritionally deficient? Or, a more important question is: what will happen to peoples’ health if they consume food with high nutritional density and no mineral deficiencies? If poor-quality food decreases the health of the population, and food of moderate nutritional quality can sustain health, will the consumption of high-quality food make a person healthier and more resilient? Can it help heal a sick person? Beyond the personal and social benefits that come with good health, a community cannot be resilient without a population that is healthy and physically capable, or if a substantial portion of its resources is spent on health care.

Food for thought!

[JuzaMum]

Thanks for the replies.
Mrs H - Unfortunately my little boy also has excema so I think salt baths may worsen this otherwise I would give it ago.
Zech - Antibods course completed, I know we have to finish the course but I know so many people who don't! Yes modern medicine is great - I wouldn't be here without it.
Greenelse - I totally believe a lot of food available is rubbish. The raw ingredients overfarmed and the end result overprocessed. A couple of other people have suggested blood tests but I am reluctant as he was very traumatised by emergency blood tests and IV lines being put in whilst in hospital.
I am giving him Probiotics for a couple of weeks in the hope it will help and I do my best to get a good diet down him.

JuzaMum

[RuthG]

Probiotic yoghourt should be taken daily for the duration of any antibiotics and for at least a month afterwards to re-align the bacteria in the gut.

As to veggies, there's a lot of sense in the above post; can you/do you grow your own? The fresher you get them from harvest to plate, the better they are and the higher the nutrient content, as they deteriorate in transit and sitting on shop shelves. I know we cant grow oranges here, but I read somewhere that a random test revealed the Vit C content of some oranges as low as 0%!!

[JuzaMum]

Hi Ruth

I didn't start the probiotics until he finished the antibods - I thought they might kind of cancel each other out. We are using powders (£10 for 15!) as dairy turns him into a snot monster.
I don't have much garden but have been trying some home growing. My little boy loved eating his homegrown strawberries but the courgettes seem less popular. My caterpilla and slug harvests are spectacular but sadly not appetising.

[madhatter]

Hi! I would def keep up the probiotics and yoghurt, I know you said he gets a bit snotty with dairy but I think the benefits would outweigh the snot in this case. Also, consider switching to raw (unpasteurised) milk which has a ton of natural cultures abd bacteria in it that will help boost his immunity. Unfortunately pasteurized milk has been 'cooked' so all the good stuff has been killed. Since switching to raw milk my sons eczema has almost totally cleared up and he dosent have the reaction to it that he does to standard shop milk. We also take a medicinal honey that has bee pollen mixed in with it, and apparently it's a good immune fighter.

I only grow veges, not fruit but i am careful to only buy organic apples and strawberries as they are a highly sprayed crop and sadly, the most loved by children.
I would also go to see a natropath. Good luck!

[Crickleymal]

I have to say that I'm somewhat sceptical about all this probiotic stuff. We've managed for thousands of years without it. However knowing that my eldest boy has/had a problem with cow's milk which made him quite ill we switched to goat's milk which seems to have done the trick. He used to get headaches and vomiting and high temperatures. The doctor said it might be a food alergy but couldn't give us any practical advice on where to start. I remembered that my mother had problems with milk chocolate but not with dark so we tried eliminating milk. Bingo!

[greenorelse]

I remembered that my mother had problems with milk chocolate but not with dark so we tried eliminating milk. Bingo!

As the connection between human breast cancer and ingesting milk from another species is quite logical, it's not surprising that there are other, less obvious health implications.

[Crickleymal]

As the connection between human breast cancer and ingesting milk from another species is quite logical, it's not surprising that there are other, less obvious health implications.[/quote]

I'd dispute that. Ok I'm no expert but a quick google reveals that there is no proven link and indeed in some countries where there is low consumption of dairy products, the rates of breast cancer as as high as they are in the West. Of course it does depend on who you read but I try to look at websites with no axe to grind.

[greenorelse]

Fine. I only said it was logical.

[Crickleymal]

Fine. I only said it was logical.

And I'd dispute the logical bit too but only to rib you gently

[The Riff-Raff Element]

I'd go along with the raw milk idea. I've no actual hard evidence, but I have noted not infrequently that people who show marked intollerence to "milk" do very well on the raw stuff and it is full interesting enzymes. My kids thrive on it.

In a similar vein, you might try avoid any bread made via the Chorley Wood process (ie practically anything from a supermarket or sold in a packet). Again, no actual science to support it, but my dear mama-in-law and some others I have known with IBS have found that switching to "proper" bread really eased this, suggesting (to me at least) that their immune system was probably benefiting.

Apples are good too.

[madhatter]

I have to say that I'm somewhat sceptical about all this probiotic stuff. We've managed for thousands of years without it. !

Yes but thousands of years ago we wernt reguarly killing off our beneficial bacteria with antibiotics.
There are probiotics found naturally in food- yoghurt is one, raw cows milk another very good strain. Pretty sure raw natural honey has some too. The probiotics in shops are packaged for convenience and at a much higher dose, as nature didn't provide them at a dosage level where we would be killing off everything in one hit.

Pasteurized milk has all the good bacteria killed and most of the bad stuff killed too.. Most people who can't drink shop bought cows milk can tolerate the raw uncooked version and there are many people researching it's benefits in healing and general Health.