it has been in the news lately and the reason why is because children were getting multiple different types of medications not intentionally and were exactly following the directions. the parents were kind of like well i need to go to work and i need to get my child to school. so they're giving them all these different types of medicines not realizing that some of them contain the same ingredients. children were becoming very tired they were having different types of reactions and actually some children did end up in the emergency room. the labeling and directions have actually been revised and now most products are not recommended for use in children under four. so as a parent when you come into the pharmacy ask the pharmacist if they can assist you in making sure you're choosing the right product. the pharmacist is going to ask you a lot of questions including what is your child's weight? we are finding out more and more that these medications need to be dosed on the child's weight rather than their age. also when you get a dropper or spoon that comes with the medication you want to keep those together. that spoon was specifically designed for that medication to make sure your child receives the right dose. read the labels. the labels may have tylenol cough and cold but it is going to contain some products other than just tylenol. then you might go to a robitussin type of product which may contain the same thing as well. make sure everyone in the house is aware of what you might be giving your child to help their cough or cold. sometimes we have nannies or grandparents that come over and say oh i'm going to give him some medication. well make sure everyone knows when the last time the medication was given what was given and keep track of it. sometimes also the best medication is no medication at all. we might want it to run its course or it may just require something like a simple nasal drop or running a vaporizer at night. it's as simple as that. but we really want to keep this in mind we want to be safe we want to make sure that parents understand that. there are lot of questions around this topic. ask your pharmacist or the medication experts we'll be more than happy to help you with this.
i have heard that otc cold meds were dangerous for young children and are pulling them off the shelf. is that true?