Data concerning prevalence rate of Helicobacter pylori gastritis in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients is conflicting. We had studied the prevalence of Hp gastritis in newly diagnosed inflammatory bowel disease children before any pharmacological treatment was introduced. Ninety four consecutive children with inflammatory bowel diseased were enrolled into study, mean age 12.9+/-3.75 years, including 50 with Crohn's Disease (CD) and 44 with ulcerative colitis (UC). One hundred and four patients (mean age 13.6+/-4.2 year) referred for diagnostic evaluation because of recurrent abdominal pain, matched for age, sex and socioeconomic status served as a control. The results revealed a highly statistically lower prevalence of Hp gastritis in children with IBD as compared with controls (9.6% vs. 38.4%, p< 0.0001). Significantly more often Hp gastritis occurred in CD than UC patients. There was no statistical difference in mean age of IBD onset between Hp gastritis positive and negative groups (14.3+/-3.75 vs. 13.6+/-4.3 yr) was found. Our results show that in newly diagnosed IBD children, Hp gastritis is not unusual, but the prevalence rate is significantly lower comparing to the control group. The low Hp gastritis rate is not related to medical treatment, since the patients were studied before any was introduced.