Antibiotics in Young Children May Be Linked to Higher Obesity Risk

Comstock Images/Stockbyte/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — A new study indicates that antibiotics, used in children under the age of 2, may be linked to childhood obesity.

Researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia looked at data from 65,000 infants and found that infants under the age of 2 who received more frequent doses of wide-spectrum antibiotics were more likely to be obese than those who received less frequent doses.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics, found that children younger than three months are given the strongest selection of antibiotics for a short period of time, which has been proven to save lives. However, researchers say children over the age of three months may be more prudently treated with a more narrow spectrum of antibiotics.

Researchers say that the cumulative exposure to antibiotics, as well as the early age of antibiotic exposure, was linked to a higher risk of obesity later on.

Follow @ABCNewsRadio
Copyright 2014 ABC News Radio