FDA: Cold and cough meds too dangerous for babies, toddlers

By: David Leonard

Tampa Florida- When eight month old Gracie Gardner is sick, her mother Marley heads to the doctors office.

Marley has given her daughter over the counter medications in the past, but says the days of using those drugs are over.

"I mean even though it is marked on the syringe and you can read it very clearly, I wouldn't think it would take a lot to over dose them" Gardner said.

The medicines the FDA is worried about include decongestants, expectorants, antihistamines and cough suppressants. They have been associated with convulsions, rapid heart rates, and even death.

"Whenever we're sick the first thing we do is get a cold medication over-the-counter. So a lot of parents feel if they are not prescribed cold medication that they are not doing everything they can to help their child get better,"said Devan Walicek, a pediatric nurse practitioner at the Pediatric Health Care Alliance in South Tampa, recommends parents look for other options instead of heading for the medicine cabinet to take care of a sick kid.

"Usually for children under the age of two we really recommend supportive care. That doesn't include medicine. We ask them to try pushing the fluids, running a mist humidifier in their bedrooms, ball suctioning their nose if they have a lot of mucus and keep their head elevated so they can breathe easier,"
she says.

The FDA is expected to make a decision, by spring, whether the drugs are safe for kids between 2 and 11.

Many drug companies have pulled the medicines off the shelves, but you may still have them in your medicine cabinet. The warning involves medications for children under two including the brands, Dimetapp, Little Colds, Pedia Care, Robitussin, Triaminic and Tylenol.