Your Baby’s Medication May Lead to Childhood Allergies

No parent wants a child to develop allergies to any food or substance, but sometimes it happens outside of anyone’s control. The tendency to develop allergies is often hereditary, passed from parents to offspring. But the risk of suffering an allergy can certainly be reduced. Here’s a risk-reduction story all parents should heed.

A study published in JAMA Pediatrics, a journal of the American Medical Association, links acid suppressant and antibiotic use during infancy with childhood allergies, including asthma. Nearly 800,000 children were evaluated for the study over a decade-plus period, using medical records to determine medication use in infancy (birth to 6 months of age) and correlating it with allergy/asthma risk at 6 months of age and older.

Infant exposure to acid-suppressive medication increased the risk of all allergies assessed with the exception of seafood allergy, including food allergy, anaphylaxis, asthma, atopic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis, allergic conjunctivitis, urticaria, contact dermatitis, medication allergy and more. Exposure during infancy to antibiotics also increased childhood allergy risk, as well as the risk of experiencing asthma – more than double the risk compared to infants not receiving antibiotics during their first six months of life.

An estimated 50 million-plus children in the U.S. alone suffer allergies every year. Anything you can do to reduce the risk that your child will experience allergy symptoms sounds like a great idea to us. Always talk to your pediatrician before filling any prescription to ensure you are informed of the risks versus benefits and whether natural alternatives are available.