Jacob is an opinionated little boy and at times he can be cranky, but nobody would say he is a violent or ill-tempered boy. However, if they saw him in our house over the last two days they would think he was in the most abusive, violent environment ever. Quite frankly, he has turned into the Incredible Mini-Hulk. He goes from 0 to 10 instantly and kicks, screams and hits at the slightest frustration. The culprit? The antibiotic Omnicef.
Despite having ear tubes he still managed to pick up an ear infection. He had a cold and last Wednesday the doc said his ear looked red and infected. We tried antibiotic drops for a couple days, but his fever was persistent and the drops weren’t staying in his ears. We got him switched to Omnicef and that’s when the gates of hell opened and possessed our beautiful boy. Yesterday was one of the worst days I’ve had with Jacob because he was unmanageable. He would play for a second and laugh and then turn around and throw himself on the ground in a fit of anger. If I tried to console him he would physically hit me. I don’t believe in spankings, but I wanted to swat his butt.
We are going to stop the antibiotic and deal with the consequences. If the ear infection flares up again I will have another antibiotic prescribed, but there is no way I am keeping him on this mind-altering drug. I read a few reports from parents describing the exact same side-effects in their children. When a toddler is already learning how to deal with emotions and then you introduce a drug that plays with their emotions it’s a recipe for disaster. I’ll never allow our pediatrician to prescribe Omnicef again.
