Doctors and parents should talk about kids' use of alternative therapies, a study says.

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(CNN) -- Your child's pediatrician isn't likely to ask whether you are giving your youngsters herbs or treating them to acupuncture.

But enough children are now using alternative therapies that physicians should be inquiring about it, and parents need to volunteer information about any complementary medicine approaches their children are using to avoid any potential harmful interactions with conventional treatments.

A new study published in the journal Pediatrics finds that the use of complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM, is common among children, especially those who have been diagnosed with chronic health conditions such as asthma.

In the analysis, researchers asked 926 Canadian parents at two children's hospitals about their CAM use; half said their children had used the therapies at the same time they were taking conventional drugs, while 10% tried alternative therapies before turning to conventional treatments and 5% used CAM in place of conventional medicine.

Yet many parents weren't telling pediatricians that their children were using CAM, which could increase the possibility of dangerous interactions.

The most commonly used CAM therapies included massage, faith healing, chiropractic and aromatherapy, while the most popular products to treat conditions ranging from cancer to asthma and inflammatory bowel disease were vitamins and minerals, herbal remedies and homeopathic medicines.

"Whether we're looking at the general population or at children's hospitals, it seems that complementary medicine use is extremely common," says Dr. Sunita Vohra, lead author of the study and a pediatrician who is chair of the section on integrated medicine for the American Academy of Pediatrics.

In the United States, a recent survey found that one in nine children had used alternative therapies to treat a health condition.

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Tell your pediatrician about alternative medicine