Babies, hypotension and steroids

[Guest guest]

When babies are concerned, we all become panicky when they are

visited by a disease. And in India, adults are slowly turning back to

ayurveda for chronic diseases, after having bad dream from modern

medicine. As far as babies are concerned, parents generally seek

ayurvedic help first. But in emergency, one rushes to modern medicine

too. There is a clear trend of researchers to investigate weak points

of modern medicine rather than strength. When one's son or daughter

suffers, he/she wakes up. Now after vaccines, antibiotics, NSAIDS,

next is the turn of steroidal drugs used for babies.

 

"My baby is weak, not adequately active, tires quickly and does not

put up weight, even though the diet is adequate, was born

underweight", a common complaint from moms when they visit

paedetricians. They should study this when asking for modern drugs

for babies.

 

Treatment with steroids for low blood pressure in very low birth

weight (VLBW) infants may increase the risk of brain damage and

death, new findings suggest. The researchers call for more forward-

looking studies to assess the safety of this treatment.

 

VLBW infants weight less than 3 lbs. 5 oz and are at increased risk

for death and a variety of complications, including lung and heart

problems.

 

Steroids are often given to VLBW infants to prevent or treat lung

disease, but recently there has been evidence that they may also help

with low blood pressure or "hypotension." Until now, however, no

forward-looking studies had looked at the use of steroids for this

condition.

 

As reported in the medical journal Pediatrics, Dr. Neil N. Finer,

from the University of California San Diego Medical Center, and

colleagues assessed the use of steroids in 1401 VLBW infants entered

in a perinatal database in California.

 

Overall, 3.6 percent of infants received steroids for chronic lung

disease only, 11.8 percent for other conditions, and 4.0 percent for

lung disease and other conditions, the investigators report. In all

birth weight categories, steroids were used mostly for conditions

that were unrelated to the lung.

 

Hypotension was the most common disease unrelated to the lungs

treated with steroids, the investigators note. Of the 221 infants

given steroids for non-lung disease, 180 received the therapy for

hypotension. The most commonly used steroid for hypotension was

hydrocortisone, followed by dexamethasone.

 

When compared with infants given steroids only for chronic lung

disease or those not given steroids, infants treated with steroids

for hypotension were at increased risk for bleeding in the brain,

brain damage, and death.

 

"There is an urgent need for large, well-designed trials to evaluate

the safety and efficacy of postnatal steroids to treat hypotension in

VLBW infants and to evaluate both short- and long-

term...developmental outcomes in such infants before this practice

gains increased use," the authors conclude.

 

SOURCE: Pediatrics, March 2006.

 

If free treatment was offered, would you like your baby to paticipate in such a

study?

 

For the informations of parents, let it be noted that ayurveda does have

approaches for congenital cardiac problems of babies.

 

dr bhate