Parents Urged Not To Give Babies Store Bought Cold Medicine

It’s the season of coughs and colds, but before you rush out to the drug store there are some over the counter products you should know about that might be dangerous for your child.

Johnson & Johnson voluntarily recalled a slew of  infant cough and cold products in the U.S. Thursday after “rare” instances of misuse leading to overdoses were reported.

Following suit, Health Canada issued a statement Thursday with recommendations for the appropriate use of non-prescription cough and cold products for youngsters.

“Life-threatening adverse events, including unintentional overdose, have been reported to Health Canada in association with the use of these products in children under two years of age,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, Canadian-based McNeil Consumer Healthcare said it is voluntarily withdrawing Infants’ Tylenol Cold Dye Free Drops, Benylin for Infants Cough and Cold Oral Drops and Benylin  for Infants Stuffy Nose Oral Drops. And an official with Wyeth Consumer Healthcare Canada said two Dimetapp products are being pulled in Canada too, oral infant cold drops (one with dye and one without) as well as oral infant and fever drops.

The Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. said that from 1969 to 2006 there were 54 reports of deaths from decongestants and 69 with antihistamines. In most cases, it involved children younger than two.

CityNews Medical Specialist Dr. Karl Kabasele explained how over the counter medications don’t always work. “We’ve known for some time now that cold medications aren’t particularly effective for children or anyone for that matter. The only thing that really works for colds is rest and taking in a lot of fluids,” he said.

The products being recalled in the U.S. include:

• Infants’ Tylenol Drops Plus Cold
• Concentrated Infants’ Tylenol Drops Plus Cold & Cough
• Pediacare Infant Drops Decongestant
• Pediacare Infant Drops Decongestant & Cough
• Pediacare Infant Dropper Decongestant
• Pediacare Infant Dropper Long-Acting Cough
• Pediacare Infant Dropper Decongestant & Cough (PE) products

Recommendations for giving your child over the counter cough and cold medicines:

Children under two

• Don’t use cough and cold products, including drugs and natural health products, in children under two years of age unless it’s recommended by your doctor. 
• Even if the cough and cold products are labelled for infants (for example, they use the word “infant” in their name) it’s still better to run it by your doctor
  before giving it to any young child.

Children of all ages

• Read all labels and instructions before giving your child a product. If it doesn’t  contain dose information for children, then you shouldn’t give it to them.
• Don’t give a child a larger dose than is recommended.
• Avoid giving more than one cough and cold product to a child.
• There’s no cure for the common cold. Children will usually recover from coughs and colds in time on their own.
• It’s sometimes important to rule out serious illnesses (for example, pneumonia or other infections) which
  may present with cold-like signs and symptoms; this is especially important if symptoms persist or if the child’s condition
  deteriorates.

  – Information Courtesy Health Canada