If you give your baby
Calpol or other forms of paracetamol, you are increasing your baby’s risk to
develop allergies and asthma, a study suggests.
Babies fed with the
medicine in the first 15 months of their life are at much higher risk of
suffering from allergies, the study claims.
Moreover, it was found
that they are twice as likely to have suffered from wheezing and other symptoms
of asthma by the time they were six.
They are also three times more at risk
from having allergies such ashayfever, the study further suggests.
The study, published in
the journal Clinical and Experimental Allergy, made use of data on 1,500 babies
and young children up to the age of six in New Zealand.
Despite the result, the
researchers cannot be sure on the existence of the link.
However, some experts
believe paracetamol causes changes in children's body that make them more
vulnerable to certain inflammations and allergies.
Professor Julian Crane,
who led the study, told Daily Mail:
“We need clinical trials
to see whether these associations are causal or not, and to clarify the use of
this common medication.”
Dr. Crane added that the
benefits of the medication outweigh the allergy risk. Thus, Dr. Crane says
parents should not stop giving the medication to their children.
