LAUSR

The question of interest to parents, clinicians, and policy makers about whether giving antibiotics in infancy will lead to childhood asthma has been studied for over 25 years. At least five meta-analyses have studied this question, from the first meta-analysis in 2006 by Marra et al. of just studies to the most recent meta-analysis in 2022 by Duong et al. of 51 studies from a range of countries and settings. 1–5 The answer appears to be a resounding “yes”, with an increased odds of 37% of developing wheeze or asthma in childhood if given antibiotics in the first 3 years of life. 4 Added to this, the review by Duong et al. showed that early antibiotic use was also associated with the development of eczema, food allergy, obesity, and autism spectrum disorder in children. 3 Despite these findings