Naturopathy relieves abdominal pain of children

Child treatment: Herbal combination helps against abdominal discomfort.

(23.09.2010) Abdominal pain belongs to „daily bread“ Pediatricians: Up to 21 percent of all children suffer from dysfunction of the gastrointestinal system such as recurrent upper abdominal pain (functional dyspepsia) or a so-called irritable bowel syndrome. Like the working group of Prof. Dr. med. Michael Radke recently reported at the annual congress of the German Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine in Potsdam, they can be helped with a herbal medicine.

An open prospective study investigated the use of a combination of nine plant extracts approved for the treatment of dyspepsia and irritable bowel in children aged 3 to 14 years. 980 small patients with gastrointestinal dysfunction from 43 practices were prescribed the medication by their pediatrician at an age-appropriate dose for one week. As the working group of Professor Radke reported at the Potsdam Congress (lecture DGKJ-PV-041), the complaints of the children could be significantly improved by the one-week use of the herbal medicine.

The results in detail:
38.6 percent of the children or their parents rated the symptoms as significantly improved. 35.6 percent of the study participants were completely free of symptoms of building pain after one week. The mean sum score of upper and lower abdominal complaints decreased from 16.1 to 8.93 score points at baseline to 3.8 to 4.24 score points at the end of the treatment week. Compatibility, which is always the most important in the treatment of children, was rated as very good by 94.8 percent of children and parents. Of the 980 children and adolescents treated with the phytopharmaceutical, only seven reported adverse events. Only four of them were in a probable or possible connection with the therapy. (KFN)