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September 29, 2007. 8:16 p.m.
You Should Not Give Your Children Cold and Cough Medicine.
Finally the FDA is getting around to putting its foot down on
cold and cough medications for young children. These over the counter medications
have never been shown to work better than placebos (i.e. giving nothing) in the
treatment of colds and coughs. And what is worse, there have been at least
54 deaths
in children taking decongestants, and 69 deaths with antihistamines.
Giving decongestants to toddlers is felt to be particularly risky. In spite of this,
manufacturers advertise these medications with the word "toddler" in the label,
like Toddler's Dimetapp, Triaminic Infant, and Little Colds, or they put a picture of a baby on the bottle.
The FDA panel is recommending a ban on decongestants and cold medications in
children under 6. This recommendation is long overdue. Let's hope that the FDA
will be able to overcome the special interests in the form of the manufacturers of
these medications and their supporters and get these bans on harmful and useless
medications put in place. Since they have not been shown to be effective for any children
parents should not use them.
Bottom line-- you shouldn't feel like if your kid is sick you have to do something.
Usually, doing nothing is the best parenting approach.
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