Cold medicine and babies under 2

So, Alex has a cough, still, and I asked our pediatrician again about what we can and cannot give her. He reiterated to me that he does not want us to give her cold medicine, so I asked him why, and he gave me this pamphlet explaining that the CDC found that it can be risky to give children under 2 cough medicine. Just wanted to pass this on to the mommies... seems like it's OK, as long as you stay within the right dosages, but my ped told me that cold medicine hasn't proven to help babies under 2 anyway. For those of you who have used it, have you noticed a difference in your child's symptoms when you give it to them?

Here's the article from the CNN website:

CDC warns against giving toddlers, babies cold medicine, cough syrup
POSTED: 2:30 p.m. EST, January 12, 2007
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ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- More than 1,500 toddlers and babies wound up in emergency rooms over a two-year period and three died because of bad reactions to cold or cough medicine, federal health officials reported Thursday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned parents not to give common over-the-counter cold remedies to children under 2 years old without consulting a doctor.

The deaths of three infants 6 months or younger in 2005 led to an investigation that showed the children all had high levels of the nasal decongestant pseudoephedrine, up to 14 times the amount recommended for children ages 2 to 12. The study found 1,519 ER cases from 2004 and 2005 involving young children and cold medicine.

The CDC said it's not known how much cold or cough medicine can cause illness or death in children under 2 years old, but there are no approved dosing recommendations by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for that age group.

The American Academy of Pediatrics first advised parents in 1997 about the risks of complications and overdose potential with certain cough suppressants. Last year the American College of Chest Physicians advised doctors not to recommend cough suppressants and over-the-counter cough medications to young children because of the risks.

Dr. Michael Shannon, chief of emergency medicine at Children's Hospital Boston, said it's common, especially in the winter, to see emergency room cases of toddlers given cough or cold medicine.

"Pediatricians have for years, particularly for the last five years, been for the most part trying to dissuade parents from giving young children common cold preparations," Shannon said.

Dr. Michael Marcus, director of pediatric pulmonology, allergy and immunology at Maimonides Infants and Children's Hospital in New York, said, "The best thing (parents) can do is support with fluids and lots of kisses and time, because lots of infections are viral and will pass in a few days. The medications have a greater potential for harm than the infections you are trying to treat."

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/01/11/cold.medicine.infants.ap/index.html

Re: Cold medicine and babies under 2

When Andy had a bad cough in late Dec, early Jan the doctor told us to give him Infant Pedicare Cough & Cold. They said 1 dropper full every 6-8 hours, we did it every 8 just to be sure. It still dragged on for like 2 weeks, so I don't think it really did much other than provide some sort of relief to let him calm down and sleep for a while. He was 6 months old.

Re: Cold medicine and babies under 2

Re: Cold medicine and babies under 2

That's interesting, thanks for sharing. I didn't know that
Our pediatrician lets us give Miranda Delsym which is just a cough suppressant and it's only given every 12 hours. He's very cautious too in letting us medicate her. I remember when she was young and really, really sick he kept saying no we cannot give her anything. Fianlly he said she could have a little Bendaryl at night only. Its funny how different the doctors are. Some are very liberal in letting paretns give medications while others are not. I really try not to overload her either but she has just been so, so sick and running moderate to high fevers for 6 days now that I'm trying to do anything to get her some relief.
It even more scary now because so many parents were used to giving their kids Pedicare, Triaminic etc but the formulations have changed due to the psuedoephedrine restriction and they now contain phenylephrine which cannot be used in children under 2. I worry how many parents don't know that.

Re: Cold medicine and babies under 2

Re: Cold medicine and babies under 2

Re: Cold medicine and babies under 2

Now that Ellie is over 6 mos our Ped gave us a sample of little noses decongestant drops this last time to help her congestion and it did work miracles, but she was very stern about how to use and told us to use it sparingly. But she went from not drinking out a bottle at all and not sleeping through the night and making this awful snorting noise, to drinking and sleeping normally and being cheerful again.

Re: Cold medicine and babies under 2

Posted by Bxgell2

Posted by monkeybride

That's interesting, thanks for sharing. I didn't know that
Our pediatrician lets us give Miranda Delsym which is just a cough suppressant and it's only given every 12 hours. He's very cautious too in letting us medicate her. I remember when she was young and really, really sick he kept saying no we cannot give her anything. Fianlly he said she could have a little Bendaryl at night only. Its funny how different the doctors are. Some are very liberal in letting paretns give medications while others are not. I really try not to overload her either but she has just been so, so sick and running moderate to high fevers for 6 days now that I'm trying to do anything to get her some relief.
It even more scary now because so many parents were used to giving their kids Pedicare, Triaminic etc but the formulations have changed due to the psuedoephedrine restriction and they now contain phenylephrine which cannot be used in children under 2. I worry how many parents don't know that.

yeah, it's amazing to me how doctors run the spectrum of conservative to liberal. Our doctor is always very conservative when it comes to medication. We chose him because he's in line with most of our perspectives, but at the same time, I take everything anyone tells me with a grain of salt, knowing there are a variety of opinions and medical research out there. The only reason why I'm so hyper-sensitive to the medication issue is because I'm attorney and I've seen some really frightening and alarming cases come across my desk... but, at the same time, I don't want Alex to suffer needlessly when she has an awful cough. So far we haven't given her any kind of cold medicine, but instead, Motrin, and it seems to be ok. Though, our ped told me yesterday that he prefers Tylenol to Motrin, especially when they have a virus or infection, because the Motrin has anti-inflammatory ingredients that inhibit the natural healing process against a virus or infection. Never heard of that one

Re: Cold medicine and babies under 2

I've given Nate Infant Robutussin. It worked for a while, but for his last cold it really didn't do anything. So after the second night, I didn't even give it to him. His ped then told me to give him half dose of infant PediCare Cough and it worked wonders. He was able to get some sleep.

Re: Cold medicine and babies under 2

This is what my brother told me about child medication... He doesn't recommend it to his patients because as stated above it doesn't do much for children under 2. He tells the parents to let the cold run its course unfortunately... If there is a cough he told us to get whatever is on sale for cold and cough... But he told us to be careful with the dosages...

I did give it to Jacob and I really didn't see a difference but it made me feel better that I tried everything to make him feel better at the time

Re: Cold medicine and babies under 2

Oh Boy, does this bring back scary memories for me. When John first came home, he had the WORST upper respiratory infection and cough and would be up all night coughing. Our doctor gave us the OK to give him Pediacare Cold & Cough and we were giving him regular dosages quite frequently. I started noticing that his heart was racing and that he wasn't breathing regularly just as I watched a news segment warning parents against medicating children under 2 with cough medicine due to several infant deaths!!! I almost had a stroke. I immediately called the doctor panicing saying I think I overdosed him, but he said he's pretty confident that's not why he was breathing and acting funny, said it would be pretty hard to o/d him with the small dosages we had been giving him and that Pediacare was fine. Wound up going to ER and the intermittent breathing was due to his high fever, but I've been much more reluctant to give him cough medicine since. But to answer your question, yes, the Pediacare is the only thing that helped him sleep. I still think it's ok to give at nighttime just so they (and you) can get some rest. Otherwise, I'd try saline for the stuffy nose. My other pediatrician advised against cough syrup any time other than night time because she said it's important for kids to cough up whatever it is that they're congested with. She said the cough is actually a good sign; that they're on the tail end of their colds/infections. She said the cough medicine is more to help the parents (to sleep) than anything else.

Re: Cold medicine and babies under 2

Our ped told us to give her any of the Tylenol products since the dosage would be the same as regular tylenol.

Re: Cold medicine and babies under 2

I tried the pediacare cold and cough and it did nothing for my son. The tynenol cold and cough worked well and so did the Robitussin DM.