Steroid for wheezing kids? Not worth it

London, United Kingdom, January 22: Next time you are about to give steroid pills to the tiny tot who is wheezing from colds, think twice. Such steroids are impotent in curing such ailments.

To make matters worse, these drugs might stunt the growth of the little ones or may cause other side effects, latest research suggests.

The study published in the New England Journal of Medicine was conducted on preschool children hospitalized due to breathlessness. 687 children ageing 10 months to 5 years came under the preview of the study. These children were administered the steroid prednisolone while another set of children were given dummy pills.

The former category did not show any speedy recovery. There was no noteworthy difference in the time taken to discharge the two groups. The children administered with the prednisolone drug were discharged after 11 hours vis-à-vis 14 hours for the placebo group.

Dr. Andrew Bush of the Royal Brompton Hospital in London wrote, "There can no longer be any justification" for giving steroid pills to wheezing preschoolers. "It is disturbing to contemplate how many unnecessary courses of prednisolone have been given over the years, in good faith, because we all assumed that preschool children are little adults."

A Canadian study, published in the same journal showed that the side effects like possible stunted growth far outweighed the advantages of administering steroids. In this study, 129 children aged between 1 and 6 years were given inhaled fluticasone at the first sign of an infection. Akin to the first study, there was a placebo group.

After 10 months on medication, researchers found that children who took fluticasone had milder symptoms. On the flip side they had smaller gains in height and weight vis-à-vis the placebo group.

The Canadian study was funded by GlaxoSmithKline PLC, whereas the British research was funded by the nonprofit Asthma United Kingdom.