The Wheezing Infant

Abstract

Perhaps the most chronic complaint of childhood presenting to family practitioners is the infant with recurrent wheezing. Before one even gets to grip with the rational choice of medicines in this group, one has to make the difficult choice between asthma and viral-induced wheezing, coupled with the understanding that many children stop wheezing without any long-term medication. However, once a decision is made to treat, one then has to face two additional hurdles: the first is the difficulty in administering medication to this age group. The second, perhaps even more daunting, is that few medicines have been tested in clinical trials in infants. "Off-label" use is therefore often an unavoidable necessity. This short article will review how the World Health Organisation's P-drug process might be of help in this difficult selection task.