Last year Archivist reported some studies which suggested that giving antibiotics to children in low-income communities might promote growth, in the same way that farmers use them to help fatten up livestock (Arch Dis Child 2014;99:685). Taking this a stage further, could antibiotics actually contribute to obesity in affluent communities where children are already well-nourished?

Researchers from the city of Espoo in Finland recruited all children born from 2003–2007 attending infant welfare clinics; they were able to link height and weight data to centrally-held prescribing records (Saari A …