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The Cold and Cough Medication Ban
Why Were Infant Cold Syrups Removed from Store Shelves?
By Lisa A. Goldstein
"He slept much better during the night," Davis says. "I don't know what we would do without it. It seems that parents can still make the mistake of giving too much medicine even if it's prescribed, so I don't see the difference."
If the cough and cold medicines remain on the market, Davis will continue to buy them. After all, she says, as an adult, you can prop your pillow up. You can blow your nose. You can put the vapor rub on your chest. Babies can't do these things. "If a cough medicine relieves my son from being miserable and allows him to have a decent night's sleep, then I'm going to give it to him," Davis says.
Christie Black of Campbell, Calif., also used cough and cold medicine for her child, but is now choosing not to. Whenever she took her daughter to the doctor when she was seriously congested with a cough, runny nose and fever, the doctor told her to use an over-the-counter decongestant and/or cough medicine. Black never felt very confident using it.
"It made Peyton drowsy and out of it, and I never really saw much of a difference in her cough or runny nose," Black says. "We still had to use the humidifier and raise the mattress under her head and just hope for the best. The medication never seemed to make the symptoms better or change the duration of the cold or flu."
In light of the FDA's recommendation, Black now feels terrible and quite guilty, as well as angry that she used something that could have caused her daughter harm. "Why was I not told that the medication could hurt her?" she asks. "I really wonder now looking back if she wasn't worse off with medication."
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The Cold and Cough Medication Ban by Ben on 11/29/2009 11:18PM
The article quoted Dr Haller as saying, "these drugs do not make kids with colds and sore throats feel better any quicker than doing nothing". But "feeling better" here is probably a misstatement. He meant to say "get better" (according to other articles I've read). But that's getting better faster is not the reason why most people take cold medication. They take it to alleviate suffering. Is there any evidence that the banned medication alleviates suffering in children? Granted, the risk of overdose from mixed medicines is real, but couldn't that be addressed with proper labeling for kids medicines? Eg., bold, simple, color coded labels for kids medicine (don't use the same color twice)