Use of medications in infancy

. Infants studied in their first three months were found to have medication commonly administered despite a low incidence of illness. Anti‐colic medications were the most frequently given drugs, these were usually prescribed by a nonmedical person. Most of the medications were unnecessary and achieved little. Mothers felt they were managing their infants satisfactorily despite the common use of anti‐colic medicines. There is a growing opinion which suggests that medication is probably not the best way of managing the “colicky infant”. We are concerned that we may be setting a pattern of drug taking for the future.