Child Cough-Cold Drug Emergencies Drop

Since drug makers stopped selling cold and cough medicines for young children, emergencies related to these drugs have dropped, a study shows. Manufacturers withdrew cold and cough medicines for children under age 2 in 2007. The next year, the government required label changes. New labels said these medicines should not be given to children under age 4. Researchers compared emergency room data before and after the changes. They looked at the years 2004 through 2011. After the changes, ER visits related to cold and cough medicines dropped for all young children. For children under age 2, visits for side effects of these drugs dropped 41%. For children ages 2 and 3, visits dropped 32%. Among the emergencies that d
id occur, the vast majority of
children had swallowed the medicines when no one was watching.