Infants born to mothers who use inhaled glucocorticoids — a class of steroids — to treat asthma during pregnancy may be at risk for endocrine and metabolic disorders, a new study indicates.
Researchers looked at more than 65,000 mother-child pairs from the Danish National Birth Cohort who were followed from early pregnancy into childhood.
Of the women in the study, about 61,000 (94 percent) had no asthma during pregnancy while almost 4,100 (6 percent) did have asthma during pregnancy. At the end of follow-up, the median age for the children was about 6, with an age range of about 3.5 to 9.
For mothers who used the asthma inhalers, budesonide (Pulmicort) was the most common glucocorticoid.
The use of inhaled glucocorticoids during pregnancy was not associated with an increased risk of most diseases in children, with the exception of endocrine and metabolic disorders.
Is Your Inhaler Hurting Your Baby? was originally published on blackdoctor.org
