Are acid-suppressing drugs prescribed too often in infants?
Thursday, October 20, 2011 - 01:30
in Health & Medicine
Frequent spitting up, irritability, and unexplained crying in infants can be very distressing to parents. Pediatricians often prescribe acid-suppressing drugs for these symptoms in an effort to treat infants for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD); however, GERD is an uncommon cause of these symptoms in otherwise thriving infants. In a soon to be published Commentary in The Journal of Pediatrics, Eric Hassall, MBChB, FRCPC, FACG, cautions against the over-diagnosis of GERD and over-prescription of acid-suppressing drugs in infants.