Two studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine reveal that giving steroids to toddlers wheezing from colds is no more effective than a placebo and may even be harmful.

 

Wheezing among children is common. Almost one-third of children 4 years old or younger experience wheezing and most of them will outgrow it. However, wheezing often sends parents to ER, thinking their kids cannot breathe.

 

Doctors usually give these kids steroids to open up airways. Steroids are commonly prescribed for adults and for children who have asthma. Its effectiveness for children with transient wheezing is unknown.

 

The two studies involved more than 800 children ages 1 to 6 years who were hospitalized for wheezing. One of them, led British researchers, involved 687 children who were randomly given prednisolone or placebo treatment. The kids given the drug spent 11 hours in the hospital while those in the placebo group spent 14 hours, a difference which is not significant.

 

Study senior author Dr. Jonathan Grigg, a professor of pediatric respiratory and environmental medicine at Queen Mary University London said the study “provides robust evidence that a short course of oral steroids has no clinical benefit, at least for children with mild to moderately severe [wheezing] attacks.”

 

The second study, led by Canadian researchers, involved 129 children who were given either inhaled Flovent (fluticasone) or placebo at the first sign of an infection. After a period of 10 months, kids in the drug group had milder symptoms and needed fewer repeat medications, but, at the same time, they had smaller gains in weight and height, which made researchers urge against using the drug until its side effects are better understood.

 

“There is concern about patients overusing the drugs,” Dr. Francine Ducharme of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire in Montreal and colleagues reported.

 

Flovent is made by GlaxoSmithKline, which provided the drug for the study. The company released a statement saying Flovent was not approved for treating wheezing.