Scary news for parents with asthmatic kids: T__heir medication may be affecting their height!__ A new report found that popular inhalers under the names Rhinocort and Pulmicort, among others, containing the drug budesonide have been found to stunt growth in children. But before you toss out your child's inhaler, remember that you have other options to choose from that DON'T contain the drug.
As far as I knew, asthma medications contained steroids, which I assumed aren't good for you, but to hear that the drugs can stunt your growth is unnerving!
Surprisingly, scientists knew budesonide stunted children's height by half an inch, but believed the slower growth was only temporary when they did the study more than a decade ago. Now they learned that this shrinkage is permanent and affects their adult height. When the study was first done, more than 1,000 children were tested using budesonide, nedrocomil, and a placebo. The results revealed that the kids on budesonide were always a half inch shorter than their peers.
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Doctors were fully aware of the effects this drug has on children and despite reducing their dosages in medication, those being treated on it were still affected by the height deficiency. But before parents panic about the possibility of their kids shrinking, they can rest easy to know that it doesn't get worse over time and they have the option of switching their children to a medication that doesn't cause the same effects.
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I'm pretty sure doctors' offices are going to have a lot of mothers in their waiting rooms hoping to change their child's asthma medication and I can't say I blame them! My question is why did the temporary stunted growth suddenly became permanent? I guess that would require some more testing, but after learning this, I would advise parents to be more wary of their kids' medications.
Do you have a child with asthma on medication? Tell us in the comments box below!
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