Testing for H. pylori is not useful in children with dyspepsia. The presence or absence of H. pylori is unlikely to correlate with GI symptoms in the vast majority of children.
Where H. pylori populates the stomach is different in children to adults, and for this reason is not associated with GI malignancy.
If symptoms are significant enough to suggest gastritis, the child requires advice and guidance/referral to general paediatrics and consideration of the need for endoscopy.
If they have gastritis at endoscopy, then H. pylori testing will be arranged.
Efforts are made to ensure the accuracy and agreement of these guidelines, including any content uploaded, referred to or linked to from the system. However, BNSSG ICB cannot guarantee this. This guidance does not override the individual responsibility of healthcare professionals to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual patient, in consultation with the patient and/or guardian or carer, in accordance with the mental capacity act, and informed by the summary of product characteristics of any drugs they are considering. Practitioners are required to perform their duties in accordance with the law and their regulators and nothing in this guidance should be interpreted in a way that would be inconsistent with compliance with those duties.
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