New research suggests that using alternative medicine or homeopathy instead of conventional medicines for children can, in some cases, have fatal side effects.
Paediatricians in Australia looked for possible side effects of alternative treatments, including herbal medicines, vitamin supplements and natural pills, between 2001 and 2003. They found 39 reports of side effects, including 4 deaths.
The study was published online in Archives of Disease in Childhood, part of the BMJ group. Unlike conventional medicines, there is no system for monitoring the side effects and risks of alternative treatments.
The researchers looked at babies and children under 16 and found that 65% of the cases involved side effects of these treatments. The side effects were graded as severe, life-threatening or fatal. In 44% of cases, the paediatricians found that harm was caused by not giving conventional medicine.
All doctors know that alternative treatments carry risks, the researchers say, but until now no study had addressed the issue. The worst harm comes from replacing an effective medicine with an ineffective one. In that case, even a harmless remedy becomes life-threatening.
All four deaths were caused by not using conventional medicine and using alternative treatment instead. In one case, a 10-month-old baby died of blood poisoning after being given natural remedies and a restricted diet for a mild allergy. In another, a child with seizures died of cardiac arrest after the parents chose alternative treatment instead of proven medicines, because they feared the side effects of conventional drugs.
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