Diarrhea, flu and cold are caused by viruses, therefore they heal on their own. Otitis and tonsillitis are only sometimes caused by bacteria, in that case they are treated with antibiotics.
Antibiotics are only effective in diseases caused by bacteria. Taking them when the infection is caused by viruses is useless and can be counterproductive.
Three diseases that heal without antibiotics:
Diarrhea
Diarrhea can be caused by a virus, an allergy, a food intolerance ... But even those caused by bacteria heal on their own within a few days. The treatment of diarrhea is rehydration with oral serum and normal diet. Only in some very specific cases (usually severe diarrhea in which the patient is hospitalized and a stool culture has been done) is it advisable to use an antibiotic. In other cases, antibiotics are useless, harmful and dangerous.
More information: You have diarrhea, what do I do?
The flu
It usually gives high fever, headache, severe discomfort, pain throughout the body (the “trancazo”). Antibiotics are only useful if a bacterial complication occurs, such as pneumonia. But be careful, taking antibiotics before does not prevent pneumonia.
More information: Influenza in children, how to treat it?
The cold
The cold is not the same as the flu. Hence the widespread complaint, "I got a flu shot, but I got a cold the same way." Of course: the flu vaccine does not prevent the cold.
Despite its name, the cold (mucus and cough, with or without fever) is not caused by cold, but by a virus. For dozens of different viruses (and so, while we only get the flu once a year, we can catch a cold many times). Young children, as they have not had a cold before, are not immunized, and they are caught all; The first year of school is usually tremendous.
Antibiotics do nothing in the cold; neither shorten it, nor relieve it, nor prevent possible (and rare) complications.
Snot usually changes color throughout the process: transparent-white-yellow-green. Green mucus is normal in a cold, and should not be treated with antibiotics.
More information: Is your baby cold?
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Two infections that are treated with antibiotics only sometimes
Pharyngitis ("angina")
Most pharyngitis (sore throat) is viral, and therefore you don't have to take antibiotics. In bacterial (by streptococcus) the antibiotic is not given to cure the disease (which heals on its own, and the treatment barely shortens the process a bit), but to avoid possible (and very rare) complications, such as rheumatic fever or glomerulonephritis (kidney involvement). Today it is recommended to make a throat smear (culture of a sample) to detect the bacteria before giving antibiotics. And when the child has a cough, mucus, hoarseness, or sores (canker sores) in the mouth or is less than three years old, there is not even a smear: they are viruses, and no treatment is needed.
More information: Pharyngitis or tonsillitis? Why does your throat hurt?
Otitis
Otitis, although bacterial, heals on its own in a few days. Antibiotics barely accelerate a little in the process, so today they are reserved for children under two years of age or for those who have been feverish for several days.
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