Illustrations by Olivia Mew
Jennifer Chrysler is a self-proclaimed hippie mom with a pretty chill parenting style. She makes baby slings out of hemp, embraces all things organic and, her son, Mitchell, at two and a half, already knows the words to Bob Marley?s ?Everything?s Gonna Be Alright.? The only time Chrysler gets stressed is when Mitchell gets sick, which seems to happen with alarming frequency since he started school. What worries her the most is when that illness is accompanied by a fever.
Chrysler recalls the first time Mitchell had a fever just over a year ago. He woke up with a temperature of 102F. Cold cloths on his feet and forehead coupled with doses of pain medication every four hours didn?t make any difference. By the next morning, Chrysler was in a panic. ?He was such a wee little thing and he was so sick, he couldn?t even lift his head. It was terrifying,? she says, and they headed right away to the doctor, who prescribed antibiotics for an ear infection. ?I had to make a decision. I realized I had to get him on antibiotics because what I was doing wasn?t working.? As medical marvels go, antibiotics top the list. Since the mid-1900s, they?ve prevented millions of deaths from pneumonia, tuberculosis and a host of other unpleasant infectious diseases. Before the advent of antibiotics, if children contracted bacterial meningitis there was a 90 percent chance they wouldn?t recover. Now, with a course of amoxicillin, toddlers like Mitchell recover almost inst...