Over-the-counter cold and cough medicines don’t work for children under age 6, and giving the common medicine to young children cannot be recommended, a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee said Friday.
We covered this a few weeks back. At the time, the FDA panel moved about halfway to a conclusion like this.
Although the panel’s recommendation is nonbinding, it could lead to changes in how cough and cold medicines are used. The votes are to be taken into consideration by FDA regulators, who might take action against the products at a later time.
Dr. Jeff Jenkins, of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said it could take a year or even years for the agency to make a final decision on the recommendations.
You wouldn’t want to have significant dips in the earnings curve for any concerned pharmaceutical companies. Right?
It’s just like with the Tobacco companies, because lab mice never developed lung cancer after inhaling never ending doses of cigarrete smoke, them and their lawyers pointed out that humans couldn’t develop lung cancer; until of course, someone tried it on dogs and the poor animals did developed lung cancer.
First, from experience with our daughter, the cold medicines do work. Sure this is anecdotal, BUT, that is our experience.
Second, the dosages need some work. A three y/o can weigh less than 30 lbs and a six y/o may easily weigh 75 lbs. Yet the recommended dosage will be the same for any child from over two to six. The dosage should more relate to the size of the child than their age.
Third, so a cold doesn’t kill. Ask any parent if they know their precious little bundle of joy has a cold or if it could be something much more serious.
Fourth, go ahead, pour chicken soup down the throat of a crying, nose running two y/o. Then suck the snot from their nose with a bulb. Riiiight Dr. Pediatrician.
Fifth, Why is consulting a pediatrician something you should do when the child has a cold? You won’t squeeze the kid in until three days later after the cold has wained. Nor will you be there while the child is sick.
Why are Pediatricians the worst parents of all medical people?
“”A cold does not kill, so people should just relax,” Rausch said. “Kids get sick and there’s nothing that people can do about it, but they will get better.”
Yep, that’s pretty much what the doctor told my daughter when she took her 2 month-old in to see him. 36 hours later she woke to find my granddaughter dead.