Women who take antibiotics while pregnant have children with a 20 per cent higher risk of being hospitalised for infection.
Antibiotics were found to affect the good gut bacteria babies are passed from their mothers in utero, leaving the child more susceptible to infection.
The increased risk of infection reportedly persisted throughout childhood, Scimex reported.
The findings were published by Australian and Danish researchers this week.
Antibiotics were found to affect the good gut bacteria babies are passed from their mothers in utero, leaving the child more susceptible to infection
From analysis of 750,000 pregnancies between 1995 and 2009, one in eight pregnant women were prescribed antibiotics.
From those, 28 per cent of children were hospitalised for infection before they turned 14.
Babies born vaginally were at even higher risk of infection.
Children born vaginally to mothers who took antibiotics during pregnancy were at greatest risk for gastrointestinal infection, according to the researchers.
Antibiotics affects the gut microbiome, which is vital to a child’s immune development in their early life.
The antibiotics prevented children’s immune system from developing properly, the authors of the study claimed.
Antibiotics affects the gut microbiome, which is vital to a child’s immune development in their early life (stock)
The antibiotics (stock) prevented children’s immune system from developing properly, the authors of the study claimed
The study also claimed antibiotics could affect a child’s development if their mother was prescribed the drug before falling pregnant.
Author Professor David Burgner said the results did not suggest antibiotics should be avoided, but simply limited.
Professor Burgner said antibiotics were becoming over-prescribed.
‘We need to use antibiotics sensibly in all age groups, including pregnant women,’ he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
‘Unnecessary antibiotic use can have effects even in the next generation.’