Thursday, October 11, 2007

Health Canada to advise against cough, cold remedies for infants

From CBC News:
Health Canada is expected to issue an advisory warning people not to give over-the-counter cold and cough medications to children under two and adjust labels to reflect the concerns, CBC News has learned.

The warning, which will come within days, follows an American study that says the medications have a questionable benefit and, in some cases, could be dangerous.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration completed an internal review of serious and life-threatening effects and deaths in young children dating back to 1969. ...more

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My child was in daycare as an infant and got many colds. We used cold medicine regularly as he had trouble breathing at night and, because he has very small ear canals, would get ear infections if we didn't use medicine to relieve his congestion. We never had any problems and he benefited immensely. It's hard to believe those who say these medications don't work: my kid would go from being so snotty he could not breath, his sleeves covered in dried phlem to being dry-nosed within a hour of taking medication. One thing that would help immensely is if there was standardization between manufacturers on dosage measuring units (some use teaspoons, some use mls, some have higher concentration and only need a quarter teaspon, others need a full-teaspoon, some advise dosage by age, others by weight). It's not suprizing that parents don't give the correct amount -- this is a usability issue that could be resolved by standardization. Banning these products is only going to make life even harder for parents of young children.