[Pilot study of an antibiotic regimen using ceftriaxone at home by families of children attending day care centers in the community of Toulouse]. This study was aimed at evaluating a home management of antibiotic therapy of community-acquired lower respiratory tract infections in infants, using ceftriaxone. Eighty-three out-patients, admitted to pediatricians in Toulouse, were included after oral consent. Forty infants suffered from a broncho-pulmonary infectious disease and were treated at home with intravenous injections of ceftriaxone at the dose of 150 mg/kg/day in 4 doses. Forty-nine days were spent in out-patient setting and only 25 days required emergency hospitalization. No severe complication was observed. Thirty-six patients were readmitted for at least one complementary treatment. Antibiotic therapy was discontinued in 30 cases. One patient had no improvement and was rehospitalized; two other infants presented major problems and needed a long hospitalization for clinical or psychomotor aggravation, therefore the treatment was completed by intravenous antibiotics. Among the 65 infants suffering from viral infection, only one patient presented a bacterial superinfection due to Hemophilus. The other infectious episodes were cured with antibiotic therapy. In conclusion, this study demonstrated the feasibility of a strategy based on outpatient treatment of children with severe respiratory tract infections; these results show a clinical efficacy of ceftriaxone at home in the treatment of lower respiratory tract infections at risk of hospitalization. This therapeutic strategy is easy to apply in the community, requires a low dose of intravenous antibiotics and allows a reduction of cost and in the burden of antibiotic consumption. It is easy to adapt the antibiotic regimen to the usual antibiotics used in the hospital. Moreover, this therapeutic program allows the home management of complicated or threatening bacterial infections of the lower respiratory tract in children, who represent a heterogeneous population. This simple strategy of home management of community acquired infections in children could be introduced in France to optimize antibiotic therapy and to prevent hospitalizations.