“Can a child get over strep throat without antibiotics?”
My 7 year old son was diagnosed with strep throat. I don't want to give him too many antibiotics. Can a child get over strep throat without antibiotics?
6 Answers
Strep throat is a bacterial infection and it needs to be treated with antibiotics. Strep throat may cause rheumatic heart disease or kidney disease (post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis, which is a rare kidney disease that can develop after group A strep infections). The main way to prevent PSGN is to prevent group A strep infections.
The reason antibiotics are used to treat Strep throat infections is to prevent the infection from moving to other part of the body and more serious disease. Rheumatic fever arises from untreated Step throat and can affect the valves of the heart. Strep throat infections diagnosed with a Rapid Strep screen or a throat culture must be treated with antibiotics.
Yes, they can recover from strep throat without antibiotics, however, without antibiotics they can develop the complication of rheumatic fever and it can damage the heart if that happens. Strep throat is an infection I would definitely want to treat with antibiotics.
Yes strep throat is a self-limited (will get better on its own) disease that your child can recover from, but you MUST give antibiotics for strep to prevent complications from strep throat ,specifically Rheumatic fever which can cause permanent heart damage If your child is not allergic to penicillin medicine can be given one time a day for 10 days. It is important that you complete all 10 days of the antibiotic.
The symptoms of strep throat will usually go away in about 5 days, but complications like heart or kidney complications will persist. That is why it is important to treat strep infections with appropriate antibiotics.
Maybe. This is not recommended because untreated strep can cause rheumatic heart disease that can be terrible.
