Children and Cold Medicine Hudsonville MI
Children and Cold Medicine
When your child is sick with a cold and a cough, you probably want to treat the symptoms and help him or her feel better fast. But before you turn to any over-the-counter medication, it's critical that you check with your pediatrician. According to the latest FDA guidelines, over-the-counter cold and cough medicines are never safe to use in children under two years of age—and may pose a serious risk to children for older children as well.
The Risks are Real
The problem with children and cold medicine is that there are a host of serious side effects that can occur, particularly in infants and toddlers. Further, these treatments often don't even work in children that are still very young. And when they do offer some relief in older kids, such as temporarily clearing a stuffy nose or quieting a cough, they don't actually cure these ailments or make them go away any faster. So the risk comes without much benefit anyway.
A Word of Warning
The manufacturers of children's cold and cough medicines recently withdrew cold and cough products from stores that were targeted to infants and toddlers and could put these littlest patients at risk. However, many parents may still have some of these recalled bottles of infant cold treatments in their bathroom medicine cabinets. This poses the danger that you could use these medicines by accident. Therefore, you should make sure to clean out all of your cabinets.
Natural Options Exist
Also keep in mind that while you need to steer clear of over-the-counter medicines for your young children, you don't have to let them suffer in the process. There are a variety of natural remedies that won't pose the risks of medicine side effects...
