Digestive Complaints
ARE WE OVERPRESCRIBING ANTIREFLUX MEDICATIONS FOR INFANTS WITH REGURGITATION? – (04-28-08)
Are We Overprescribing Antireflux Medications for Infants With Regurgitation?
I still remember vividly the first time I had a patient come in and say their newborn was place on acid suppressive therapy for reflux. I was dumbfounded. I knew pediatricians have a tendency to be a little off when it comes to medical research, but suppress a normal function as vital as digestion in an infant is just unthinkable. Or at least it was then…now, it seems like every body knows someone who’s baby is on this stuff. The real kicker is that any spitting up is likely going to be related to food allergies, and NOT “too much acid.”
The dangers of NOT addressing the cause of the problems coupled with the dangers of suppressing a natural antibiotic like stomach acid are many. Thankfully, I’m not the only one who’s noticed. These authors ran a study looking at acidity in a group of infants on acid suppressive therapy and found that only 8 of 44 infants actually met the criteria for acid reflux.
