My son got strep last week and is on antibiotics until the end of the week. Interestingly, I don’t know if it’s because of the antibiotics, lack of exercise and fresh air (it’s either snowing or too cold to go outside), boredom, or what, but we’ve seen some increase in symptoms recently — much more distractibility and fidgeting, some “strange” behavior (high pitched “chanting,” licking things, hanging off the sofa with head upside down). It’s like his brain is going haywire.
It has been a pattern in the past, when he was little, that whenever he was on antibiotics his hyperactivity would go through the roof. This time there are other things happening as well.
I wonder if it’s the red #40, or the antibiotics in general. Or something entirely else… I guess we’ll find out when we stop the medicine.
I’m curious whether anyone has done studies on the influence of antibiotics on the brain, if there are any subgroups of people for whom antibiotics changes their behavior. Or maybe it is the disappearance of the beneficial gut bacteria? I think I’ve read somewhere a theory that antibiotics may increase the severity of autistic behavior, but I don’t remember the explanation of why it would happen and who worked on that. I’ll have to try to look for it…