Parents are sometimes misguided into thinking that they are `more natural`, with fewer side effects than conventional drugs, reports express.co.uk.

But experts writing in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood warned of possible adverse reactions.

The analysed data showed there 39 incidents of side effects linked with complementary medicine treatment, including four deaths.

The children ranged from babies to 16-year-olds. All four deaths resulted from a failure to use conventional treatments, the report said.

`Many of the adverse events associated with failure to use conventional medicine resulted from the family`s belief in complementary and alternative medicine and determination to use it despite medical advice,` said the author of the study.

Text courtesy: IANS
Image: Wikimedia Commons Thomas Then