Parents, take note: kids with asthma don’t appear to benefit from a commonly prescribed medication.

Doctors often prescribe drugs called PPIs for people with asthma. These medications treat stomach acid reflux. Experts have suspected that poorly controlled asthma in kids can be due to reflux. But a new study casts doubt on this approach.

Researchers included 306 kids who didn’t have good control of their asthma, even when using inhaled corticosteroids. None had reflux symptoms.

Kids either took the PPI drug or a placebo for six months. Those who took the medication didn’t see improvements in their asthma symptoms or their lung function, and they had more sore throats, bronchitis and other respiratory problems.

According to the authors, about 5% of American children were taking PPI drugs in 2009. Their results, they say, show that the safety of these drugs in children needs more study.

Another expert who weighed in on this controversy for the journal wrote that the study suggests reflux doesn’t play a major role in asthma and the findings should strongly discourage healthcare providers from using PPI drugs for treating asthma in general.