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Oct 2, 2008 8:15 pm US/Eastern
HealthWatch: Children And OTC Cold Medicine
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
When your child has a cold, it's natural to open the medicine cabinet looking for relief. But a growing number of doctors say over-the-counter drugs don't help, and may even hurt. On Thursday, pediatricians voiced their concerns, but the government said no changes should be made just yet.
"We're concerned because there have been evidences of overuse of these medications that have resulted in patients' death," said Dr. Robert Giusti of Long Island College Hospital.
Pediatricians are urging the Food and Drug Administration to demand a recall of the medications for kids under 6.
Every week an estimated 10 percent of children use cough and cold remedies, with the greatest exposure among 2 to 5-year-olds.
"The truth is viruses get better on their own and they don't always need a medication to get them better," said Giusti.
Rest and fluids are the key, and home remedies can be comforting.
Last fall, after the FDA warned against the use of the medicines in children under 2, companies voluntarily pulled them from the shelves. At the time, officials still had not decided about making changes for kids under 11.
"Well the problem is they haven't really been proven to work to control the symptoms that they're meant to control," says Giusti.
About 7,000 children a year head to the emergency room with complications from cold and flu medications. Low doses are usually OK, but unintentional overdose is the most common problem.
"And the dosing is complicated because it currently is usually based on age and not on weight," says Giusti.
When parents start to mix different medications, say one for fever and another for congestion, that's when accidents happen.
After last year's recall of cold and flu medicines for children under 2, calls to poison control involving them dropped by 40 percent. Calls involving kids under 6 also dropped, but by much less.
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