Antibiotics are ¼ of all pediatric prescriptions and amoxicillin is on the top of the list

The number of antibiotic prescriptions for kids decreased but antibiotics remain the most frequently prescribed drugs for pediatric patients

In 2010 263.6 million prescriptions for antibiotic treatments were written for children under the age of 17, which is with 7 % less than 2002. However the situation is on the contrary with prescription for patients over the age of 18, where for eight years there is 22 % increase (3.3 billion prescriptions).
Food and Drug Administration researchers published analysis about the drug prescriptions for children. For many years pediatrics have tried to explain to parents that treating viral infections with antibiotics is useless.
These efforts are finally coming to a reasonable proportions but the overuse of antibiotic is still a big problem, says Adam Hersh, assistant professor of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Utah. He also claims that the overuse of azithromycin and other broad-spectrum antibiotics is contributing to the epidemic of antibiotic-resistant infections.
Other medications which started to be used not so frequently are allergy drugs – down with 61 %; pain reducing pills (down with 14 %); and cough/cold without expectorant (42 %). “It is good news that cough and cold prescriptions are down, given that they don’t work and can have serious side effects,” says Danny Benjamin, a professor of pediatric medicine at Duke University. In 2008 the Food and Drug Administration started a campaign for advising parents to stop using them for the youngest children, report USA Today
However the prescriptions for “special” pills like corticosteroids for asthma are actually increasing with 14 %. The bronze medal in the rating is for the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) – up to 46 %. The biggest “jump”, though, is in the rate of prescriptions written for oral contraceptives. From 2002 to 2010 they have increased with 93 %. Experts think that this is also because of the secondary use of birth-control-pills for treating acne.