If You Have Small Children, Read This
Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 8:15 am
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... ews&sub=AR
Drugstores began clearing their shelves of over-the-counter cough and cold medicine designed for infants yesterday after leading manufacturers announced they were withdrawing the products amid rising concerns about the safety of the popular remedies.
The decision to pull 14 products, including well-known brands such as Dimetapp Decongestant Plus Cough Infant Drops, Tylenol Concentrated Infants' Drops Plus Cold and Robitussin Infant Cough DM Drops, came one week before the Food and Drug Administration plans to hold a hearing on nonprescription cough and cold medications for children.
The hearing is part of a broad evaluation of the products the agency launched in light of doubts about their effectiveness and mounting evidence the medications can cause serious complications, including severe hallucinations and agitation, seizures, high blood pressure, and heart and breathing problems that can be fatal in rare cases.
Drugstores began clearing their shelves of over-the-counter cough and cold medicine designed for infants yesterday after leading manufacturers announced they were withdrawing the products amid rising concerns about the safety of the popular remedies.
The decision to pull 14 products, including well-known brands such as Dimetapp Decongestant Plus Cough Infant Drops, Tylenol Concentrated Infants' Drops Plus Cold and Robitussin Infant Cough DM Drops, came one week before the Food and Drug Administration plans to hold a hearing on nonprescription cough and cold medications for children.
The hearing is part of a broad evaluation of the products the agency launched in light of doubts about their effectiveness and mounting evidence the medications can cause serious complications, including severe hallucinations and agitation, seizures, high blood pressure, and heart and breathing problems that can be fatal in rare cases.