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Here's Another Dose

Are We Over-medicating Our Babies?

By Teri Brown

So why are so many infants being treated for something they don't have?

"Parent intolerance, parental anxiety, physician impatience and aggressive marketing by manufacturers of anti-acid medicines," Dr. Khoshoo says.

Dr. Jack E. Fincham, Professor of Pharmacy Practice for the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Pharmacy and author of The Everyday Guide to Managing Your Medications (Jones and Bartlett, 2007), agrees that often parents have a lot to do with over-medicating infants, especially when it comes to antibiotics.

"I think parents want to help their children get better quicker, and so they may ask for antibiotic prescription from the doctor," Dr. Fincham says. "Parents can be demanding and place pressure on doctors, and physicians may be too quick to prescribe medications in order to pacify the parent."

Dr. Fincham says that often babies develop viral infections, and antibiotics will not work with viral infections. Parents may feel an antibiotic may help (it won't), and physicians may prescribe an antibiotic to ward off an anticipated bacterial infection that may develop after the viral infection runs its course.

Cough and cold medications are another over-the-counter medicine that is too often given to a child. No one wants to see an infant sufer with cold symptoms, but the recent withdrawal of these medicines for infants shows us that not only were these medicines not safe for babies, but that over-use was common.

Want to see more?

• Check out our Article Library.
• The Cold and Cough Medication Ban: Why Were Infant Cold Syrups Removed from Store Shelves?
• Infant GERD: Signs, Symptoms and Treatments of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease
• Common Oversights: Mistakes Even the Most Cautious Moms Can Make
• Talk about it!