We came across the following post on the social media platform X (1):

The post claims that ‘giving antibiotics to infants in the first 6 month increases their risk of allergies’. It contains a short video clip of a woman speaking behind a camera making the same claims carried in the caption.

She says, ‘Infants who receive antibiotics within the first six months of life, they are at an increased risk for almost every single allergic disorder, including eczema, asthma, hay fever, anaphylactic food allergies, by the time they’re four.’

The post does not contain any references to evidence for their claim.

What Medical Studies Say

While we were unable to identify the woman speaking in the video, when we conducted a keyword search, we found multiple studies and systematic reviews that explored the relationship between childhood antibiotic prescriptions and the development of allergies.

Though it was not possible to pinpoint the study the findings of which were being referred to in the claim, the study that most directly referred to the topic in the video was published in the JAMA Pediatrics medical journal in 2018, titled Association Between Use of Acid-Suppressive Medications and Antibiotics During Infancy and Allergic Diseases in Early Childhood.

The study aimed to assess if there is an association between the development of allergic diseases in early childhood and the use of antibiotics and antacids in the first six months of infancy.

The study tracked a large number of allergic diseases, including food allergy, asthma, atopic dermatitis (eczema) and allergic rhinitis (hay fever), among other allergies.

The study found that both antibiotics and antacids prescribed during infancy were significantly associated with an increased risk of allergic diseases. Specifically for antibiotics, there was a significantly higher risk of eczema and hay fever, and a greater than two-fold risk of asthma in childhood.

As for food allergies, while peanut allergy nor seafood allergy saw significantly increased risk, increased risk was observed for cow’s milk allergy and egg allergy.

The findings of this study corroborates those of other similar studies from both before and after. One study from 2010 concluded that ‘antibiotic exposure before six months of age is associated with asthma and allergy at 6 years of age’, while a more recent study from April 2025 found that ‘Children receiving multiple antibiotic courses before age 2 were more likely to develop asthma, food allergies, allergic rhinitis, and intellectual disability’.

We also found a 2020 systematic review of available medical studies that indicated some evidence for relationships between early life antibiotics and childhood asthma, hay fever and eczema, and a 2017 meta-analysis of study findings that found that ‘early-life exposure to antibiotics appears to be related to an increased risk of allergic symptoms of hay fever, eczema and food allergy later in life’.

Anti-Antibiotics?

While the association between antibiotics and the allergic diseases are therefore clear, the reasons for them are less clear, though emerging evidence points to the importance of the microbiome, which is still in development in infants and can be disrupted by antibiotics, to a healthy immune system.

As with all medical studies, there are some limitations when interpreting the results. Associations recorded during the studies may not necessarily indicate causation, and it not be accurate to claim that antibiotics cause allergies to develop. As such, researchers often emphasise the need for more research to confirm the associations and the mechanisms through which they take effect.

While the findings may be alarming, this does not mean that infants should avoid antibiotics in all cases, as they can save the lifes of infants with bacterial infections.

Nevertheless, health experts such as the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society, which describes itself as the world’s largest organization of professionals dedicated to the treatment of infectious diseases affecting children, indicate that there are risks for both preterm (unborn) and term infants of antibiotic therapy that can lead to health consequences in the long term, and recommend that parents consult their children’s doctors on the best course of care.

As such, we find the claim that giving antibiotics to babies in their first six months of life increases their risk of allergies to be true.