FDA Ban on Children’s Cold Medicine from a Mom’s Point of View
My daughter is nearly 2 years old. She’s a healthy little girl with no known allergies or diseases, but sometimes she gets a cold. Okay, so truth be told, kids her age get lots of colds. My daughter is lucky, she’s only had a handful of the sniffles in her young life and only 3 ear infections. Whenever she got congestion or runny noses, my pediatrician always told me give her X amount of infant cold medicine such as PediaCare. She was always specific not to get the one with the cough medicine mixed in, just the psuedophedrine (the drug formerly used in Sudafed). A lot has happened since by daughter’s birth in the world of cold medicine. Sudafed was reformulated. Psuedophedrine was being used to make Meth, so the drug was changed. This made my hunt for the elusive children’s cold medicine tough. I’m very particular about the medicine I give my daughter. I’d rather under dose than overdose and I won’t give her medicine she doesn’t need, so I refuse to give her mult-symptom cold medicines. I found infant’s Dimetapp and was able to use it once, and then the unthinkable happened – it was recalled.
Back in October several children’s cold medicines were recalled:
Triaminic Infant & Toddler Thin Strips Decongestant Plus Cough
Tylenol Concentrated Infants’ Drops Plus Cold
Tylenol Concentrated Infants’ Drops Plus Cold & Cough Ugh. Luckily, my pediatrician helped me locate some Children’s Sudafed that hadn’t been reformulated yet. My local Wal Mart carried it behind the pharmacy counter. I had to sign away my first born child in a promise not to make Meth out of it, but at least my daughter was able to sleep through the night. The thing is; I’ve never given her much of these medicines. Even the label said I could give it to her every 6 hours, I normally only gave it to her at night if she was so congested she couldn’t sleep. Then I’d give her the dose out of the dropper as recommended by my pediatrician and no one other than me ever medicated her – not even my husband. I always noticed the difference when my daughter got her Sudafed before bed. She wasn’t choking on her own phlegm and she has less ear infections.
Yes, Food and Drug Administration, I’m going to say it. When your child has a really bad cold and the congestion is excessive, it has to go somewhere. It goes in their ears and it gets infected. Duh. The FDA in October stated that cold medicines in children under 6 didn’t work. I’ve spoken with many of my friends who have children and even parents of children long-since grown, and they all had the same general consensus – it most certainly did help. Alas, we responsible parents who strictly monitor doses because we know overdoses can and do happen with over the counter medicine now have our hands tied. The use of cold medicine in children under 2 is officially banned, with a ban for children under 6 on the horizon.
I foresee a future of increased ear and sinus infections and possibly even pneumonias, but I suppose it’s fair for the rest of us to pay for stupid parents who don’t know how to administer medicine to their own children. Okay, I’m not heartless. I do understand that over a 2 year period over 1500 toddlers ended up in the ER from side effects and overdoses. That’s the fault of the uneducated parent. Cold medicines have been available to children for years, and our country’s attitude of “better cover our legal tushies” has once again led to the inconvenience of the American people.
For now, I’m covered. My daughter will be 2 in a couple of months and they haven’t banned the medicine for the 2-6 year olds yet. Luckily, my daughter doesn’t get sick very often and I’ve never had to use much medicine on her. If more parents had been more attentive and less lazy we wouldn’t be in the predicament we’re in. I don’t believe that the medicine doesn’t work on toddlers. I have one of my own and have seen the medicine ease her symptoms enough to allow a good night’s sleep. I think the FDA just said that as an excuse. The FDA is worried that parents overdosing their kids will sue the pharmaceutical companies selling the drugs and maybe even the FDA for allowing them on the market. The best solution for the FDA was to just take them away from all parents.
