Yes, it is OK to continue treating with rifaximin while taking a second antibiotic. As a general rule, you should always inform the prescribing health care provider about all other medications and supplements your child is presently taking.
Rifaximin is a unique antibiotic and some researchers have suggested that it be put into a new medication category called “eubiotic.” This term is suggested because rifaximin is felt to be the only antibiotic that does not cause permanent damage to the intestinal bacterial microbiome.
The combined use of rifaximin with other antibiotics is allowed, and the medicines will not interact with one another.
If a child is on a course of antibiotics, I generally suggest parents delay starting the next monthly round of rifaximin until the other antibiotic is finished, and the infection is successfully treated.
They usually do not.
Probiotics are not needed to offset the potential negative effect of antibiotics. The probiotics might potentially even worse the disruption of the gut bacteria by the antibiotics.
I always recommend my patients stay on their protocol during other illnesses or while being given antibiotics if possible. Sometimes nausea or diarrhea from an illness will require the temporary cessation of the oils but try to continue the inulin if possible. While the antibiotics may temporarily upset the gut bacterial balance, continued use of inulin throughout the use of the antibiotics will bring things back into balance very quickly.
In such situations, children need antibiotics or else they may suffer not only more pain but irreversible injury and possibly death. My patients on inulin just stay on inulin, they may relapse a little temporarily but bounce right back afterward. My patients who have been previously treated with rifaximin sometimes just need a reset with rifaximin again if they don’t bounce back within a week or 2 after the antibiotics. It is important to realize that children may be greatly harmed if certain infections are not treated with antibiotics. If you are hesitant to give them, nicely ask the prescribing physician if there is any other way to treat the condition. On some occasions (e.g., upper respiratory infections without ear infections), the physician may say waiting to see if it ‘clears up on its own’ might be an option.
I generally recommend not interrupting continuous rifaximin while being treated with an antibiotic for a separate condition. If a child is on monthly cycles of rifaximin, it’s OK to delay the next round of the rifaximin until the illness is treated.
The immune response of infections, especially something as strong as COIVD or influenza, can cause a concussion-like effect in the nervous system. I tell my patients (assuming they are on the protocol and were improving previously) to wait a month or two, and the symptoms from the “immune concussion” will resolve on their own. If recovery does not occur, I then look at the possibility that inulin failure might have happened, and a switch to rifaximin would be necessary.