Infants’ asthma meds ‘curb growth’

According to a preliminary report, young children, below the age of 2 years given steroid medication for asthma may experience stunted growth in the later years of their life and may not reach their full height.

Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) – drugs used to deal with circumstances equivalent to bronchial asthma – are often utilized in infants with recurrent wheezing.

It found those who inhaled so-called cortico-steroids early on were too short for their age. The research was presented at the 54th Annual European Society for Pediatric Endocrinology meeting. “If a child does not take their controller medication as prescribed, it can result in repeated asthma attacks and may result in them needing multiple courses of steroid tablets, which may have an impact on growth, on bone health and have other side effects”.

“Parents may be concerned about using controller medication, but the dangers of stopping taking asthma medication as prescribed by their doctor far outweigh the possible effect on growth”, a society spokesperson said.

Experts said the study was a reminder that steroids should be used with caution in pre-school children.

Asthma United Kingdom have claimed that inhaled corticosteroids inhibits a crucial role in monitoring asthma symptoms and decreasing trips to hospital for young infants.

“Our research shows a link between long-term treatment of ICS during infancy and stunted growth at or after the age of 2 in otherwise healthy children”.

One in 11 children in the United Kingdom has asthma, making it the most common long-term medical condition among children.

Uncertain who to treat, Jonathan Grigg, honorary medical adviser to the British Lung Foundation and professor of paediatric respiratory medicine at Queen Mary University London, briefed that treating young children who were wheezing was extremely challenging. He went on to add that it has not been determined as to who responded to the steroid treatment in the study group. Furthermore, she said no parent should halt their children from taking these life-saving medicines, because a minor reduction in growth is an insignificant price to pay for medicines which may save the child’s life.

According to the CDC, boys are more likely to be diagnosed with asthma than girls.

“In response to our analysis, we may exclusively assess the influence of inhaled corticosteroids on progress in infancy till 2 to three years of age”.