cold medicine not allowed for under 2's, would you give it?

[Schmickers]

Just to clarify, guys - paedamin and phenergan are not cold or cough mixtures, they're antihistmines and sedatives.

I would use demazin in an under 2 year old - but I'm a children's nurse and know how to work out the appropriate dose by weight. I wouldn't recommend doing it without your GP on-side to work out the correct dose. As someone else has said, the syrup now is exactly the same formulation as the infant drops used to be before they were withdrawn because of medication errors.

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

When DS has a cold, I give him some infant paracetamol. That stops his nose running. I put some anti-cold vapour on a muslin cloth above his bed. I don't give anti-cold meds as the one time I tried Vicks his eczema flared up something chronic.

[~Trish~]

I remember when they stopped selling the infant drops. I asked our pharmacist why and she said that in the US some parents had overdosed their children (for the sedative affect) which had led to their deaths. Very sad and avoidable .

I would consider using it for DD, but not without going to our GP first. I think I'd wait until she is 12 months before considering it though, particularly if it is linked to SIDS.

[~Minny~]

We have used the infant cough syrup think it was dymatapp? It was specifically for under 2's, we used it as nothing else was working and the more mite couldnt breathe through her nose and it was running like a tap and getting red from having to be wiped so much. If we are sick with the cold and nothing else is working we get the cough medicine to help eleviate the symptoms so i guess for me it was no different than doing it for us. Theres nothing sedative in the under 2's one as far as i know. I also got ripped shreds at the chemist when i wanted to buy some for DD (she was 20months at the time ) as apparently i was a bad mother for wanting to make her sleep and drugging her up with infant cough medine! Never mind she had, had this cold for the last week and nothing was clearing it up but at the same time it didnt warrent needing to see a doctor. Pfffft was so P'ed off at him but thats another story!

[Astrid]

Used it under 2 here when DD2 has had a rotten cold, found it clears her up enough and eases her coughing so she is then able get some sleep which makes her better overall. I spoke to our chemist about it and we worked out the dosing.

[belfie]

wow interesting range of replies, thanks everyone!

Schmickers - thanks for clarifying regarding which meds, you're quite right that I mean specifically cold & cough meds. In terms of antihistamines, with my DS's allergies, our GP and pharmacist wouldn't give us anything when DS first had full-body hives, but our allergy specialist has allowed him to have an antihistamine since the age of 10 months. So it seems that if your requirement is considered severe enough, and you're prepared to monitor them - meds will be given at a younger age.

So saying, I'm digressing as I'm really interested in the cold stuff. For those who weren't aware, the recommendations on the cold & cough meds have been changed within the last year or so. Having checked a few pharmacies and googled, as far as I'm aware, ALL of these products are now removed for under 2's (same in NZ too). So things like Dimetapp for infants and Demazin infant drops do not seem to exist anymore. Interestingly the UK and Canada have even go so far as to make all these products unavailable for under 6's. The listed reasons are as follows:

• Very limited evidence for efficacy of these products in children under two years of age.
• An absence of evidence-based dosage advice for the use of cough and cold medicines in children aged less than two years.
• Evidence of harm in therapeutic use in this age group.
• Evidence of significant toxicity, including death, in overdose in this age group.

I actually thought it was interesting that it doesn't directly mention SIDS, but I wonder if that's part of the consideration.

I think watching your child struggling to breathe and sleep is horrible, I know for our DS this is the worst he's ever been (and yes he's been checked out by a dr). But then when I weighed up whether to give it, for me it was about "what if". If he reacted badly, I couldn't forgive myself for going against the guidelines. So saying, I think if he doesn't improve, I'll go back to the dr and say is this an option. Good to know that's a possible avenue.

[Olive]

we've used it for DD2 under GP supervision but for glue ear and not a cold, if hes that bad id ask your GP, maybe ring them

[~Stoked~]

"So saying, I'm digressing as I'm really interested in the cold stuff. For those who weren't aware, the recommendations on the cold & cough meds have been changed within the last year or so. Having checked a few pharmacies and googled, as far as I'm aware, ALL of these products are now removed for under 2's (same in NZ too). So things like Dimetapp for infants and Demazin infant drops do not seem to exist anymore. "

Thanks! I haven't worked in Pharmacy for at least a year so there you go!!

[Indadhanu]

I think I would BUT only if I had had a chat with our GP or pharmacist. It'd probably have to be a pretty bad cold/cough for me to consider a cough mixture though.

[belfie]

well not the end to our story that I expected. DS's cough got worse, and he sounded very wheezy and puffed this afternoon. So off to the doctors and turns out he's got croup/possible asthma. On steroids to settle it down. Made me even gladder that i hadn't masked the cough with a cough mixture!