Thursday, October 11, 2007

Sneeze you later...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 — Major makers of over-the-counter infant cough and cold medicines announced today that they were voluntarily withdrawing their products from the market for fear that they could be misused by parents.

The move comes two weeks after safety reviewers within the Food and Drug Administration urged the agency to consider an outright ban of over-the-counter cough and cold products for children under the age of 6.

Read the rest of the article here.

9 comments:

daedra said...

good riddance, that stuff was SO overused.

Jeremy said...

yeah, but this is only for products marketed for infants - they will still continue to carry children's cold medicine.

Besides, they've proven that most cough and cold medicines are ineffective in most children because of the low-dose of the active ingredients.

But, surprisingly enough, did you know that medicine targeted towards infants makes up 10% of annual OTC sales?

I personally say, treat the child, not the symptom.

Sarah said...

Isn't it crazy? I read a few really interesting articles about it.

daedra said...

I agree, treat the child not the symptom!
My old bosses used to give their young daughters cold medicine on airplane rides so that they'd shut up and just sleep. I thought that was absurd

Nicol said...

This is so weird. Someone said joking to me the other day "how great benedryl is" I was thinking last night, I wonder if people really do misuse the drugs?!?! I was thinking, how I could NEVER even imagine doing such a thing. This is CRAZY!

Jeremy said...

I admit to giving my son benadryl on an 8 hour international flight - but that's the only time I've ever done it.

R said...

yeah and good riddance! i am against medication unless it's strictly needed. i'm just wondering now if people will start to use the stuff marketed for children on their infants. yikes!
i remember i asked my doc if she had any good tips for taking baby on the plane. she said, very reluctantly, well, you can give benedryl so long as you try it out first (some babies have the exact opposite effect) and i saidi "oh no, i mean non-medication distractions, etc" she seemed very relieved that i was not going to drug my 4 month old.

Sarah said...

totally depends on the kid - when meg was little it made her bounce off the walls. that would definitely NOT be cool on a long flight.

Anonymous said...

is this a hippy blog?