There is damn good reason for that. Wife is a doctor, although not a pediatrician. There are some long term stats that if kid receives antibiotics before age of 1, the risk of getting diabetes later in life jumps by at least 30%.

We have tons of doctors as friends, most work in biggest hospital in Switzerland (HUG in Geneve), and all with small kids adhere to this and try to steer away from atbs as much as possible. Its not some quack unproven theory.

Thats just 1 specific situation, you can deduct that atbs do quite a mess in those little bodies and it doesnt stop with age of 1.

If you meant even adult people dont get atbs automatically, thats also is great approach especially longterm. Most infections dont need them, they do more harm than good in the body. But uneducated folks that suffer seek literally anything that can help them, some basic medical facts be damned, so doctors sometimes give up and give atbs to obnoxious patients. Then there are of course those bacterial infections where they help, but they are rather small % and usually not the most severe ones.

Meanwhile here in Vietnam (and I guess for most of the developing world) I can walk into a pharmacy and ask for any medication they have available, including antibiotics, and they'll hand it over, no prescription needed.

I've heard this is slowly changing in the big cities but I'm not holding my breath.

Same in Sweden