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Then you’re left with tragedy that you can’t justify
Posted by Raven on January 17th, 2008
This morning the headlines are dire indeed:
CNN:
FDA declaring cold meds too risky for tots
FOX:
FDA: Cold Medicines Too Risky for Young Kids
Nanny Statism at it’s best.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Parents may be left with only love and lots of liquid to give their sniffling babies and toddlers now that the government is declaring over-the-counter cough and cold medicines too risky for tots.
The Food and Drug Administration was issuing that warning Thursday to parents of children under 2.
It’s a move expected for months: Drug companies last October quit selling dozens of versions of nonprescription cold remedies targeted specifically to babies and toddlers. That month, the FDA’s scientific advisers also voted that the drugs don’t work in small children and shouldn’t be used in preschoolers, either – anyone under age 6.
What’s the problem with kids OTC cold meds?
It’s pretty significant…
For now, FDA’s first official ruling focuses on youngsters under 2, warning that “serious and potentially life-threatening side effects can occur.”
Here we go:
The reason: There’s no evidence that these oral drugs actually ease cold symptoms in children so young – some studies suggest they do no good at all.
Have they asked parents?
And while serious side effects are fairly rare, they do occur. Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year reported that more than 1,500 babies and toddlers wound up in emergency rooms over a two-year period because of the drugs.
Of course there have been some issues…as there are with ALL drugs. I venture to say that I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that most if not all of the 1500 or so cases of ER visits were because parents simply didn’t read labels…AND perhaps didn’t understand English. Have they done studies to determine the education and immigrant status of these kids’ families? A lot could be better understood if we had that info.
I’m not advocating the use of kid cold remedies. There is no cure for the common cold. I dare say most parents and little tots can put up with runny noses, sneezes and coughs. Most families can tolerate having a working parent miss days of work to stay home with a child who has a bad cold; most families just put up with the spread of the cold from one child to the next…from my own experiences the biggest problem was SLEEP. At night the kids would lose a lot of IT due to those nasty lingering coughs. We used OTC night time cough control medicines for years with no issue. On three young kids- from as early as age 2; in fact if the coughs got too out of control and lingered too many weeks, we would go to the doctor. Who would prescribe cough medicines with codeine- which is a much more serious drug than anything we can buy at the drug store.
I could understand and even support the FDA on this IF they had better reasoning. But as often the case, the evidence that is being used is not sound or even scientific…from what I can gather by reading the reports. Once again, the actions of a few cause all to have less choice. Is there a lesson here?
January 17th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Thanks for the insight on this! To pull something because of 1500 kids in 2 years going to the ER seems a bit rash. We have used OTC cold meds for our kids – but again we read the labels and were careful. But the Nanny State rises again to try and make sure we don’t hurt ourselves. Couldn’t any and all OTC meds cause potential problems? Maybe we should have the government take them all off the shelves because it seems most Americans are just too dumb to know how to use them.
January 18th, 2008 at 9:58 am
We don’t want to dish the reasons for the ER visits…but we should examine WHY the kids were overdosed…and I really think it’s because the parents were illegal immigrants who could not read the labels.
Yes all OTC meds have risks. Hell food comes with risks…everything we touch has risks…driving, opening a door, flushing a toilet. It’s not a reason for government to intervene. The claim of doing so on “behalf” of the people is another way of saying
“You’re too dumb” to know better….