Doctors offer advice on treating kids with colds
— -- The voluntary withdrawal of over-the-counter cough and cold medicines for children younger than 2 has raised questions about what's safe and how parents should treat children with such symptoms. USA TODAY's Sharon Jayson shares some doctors' advice:
Q: What is different about the bodies of children under age 2 that makes medication such an issue? And what should parents of these very young kids do to relieve their symptoms?
A: "The way they handle medications is different," says Richard Gorman, a Baltimore pediatrician who chairs a panel for the American Academy of Pediatrics that deals with drug treatments. "They absorb them differently. They metabolize them differently. They excrete them differently."
He says parents should look to tried-and-true methods that are safe and may make your child feel better.
"Extra humidity in the air. Extra fluids for them to drink to keep the mucus under control. Give them Tylenol, Motrin or Advil for fever," he says.
Q: We've been talking here about the under-2 and over-2 age groups. Should parents treat their symptoms differently?
A: "Illnesses that cause symptoms under age 2 can be slightly different," says Ian Paul, a Hershey, Pa., pediatrician in practice for nine years. His research has focused on over-the-counter cough and cold medicines for children, and he says he's never recommended them. "Watch the younger children a little bit more closely and have lower thresholds for bringing them to the doctor. Make sure they are well-hydrated and don't have labored breathing. If they're having tears, are urinating and their mouth is still moist, they're well-hydrated."
Q: How do these medications affect children older than 2?
A: Guidelines issued last year by the American College of Chest Physicians noted that over-the-counter cough medications had "little, if any, benefit" in children, and antihistamines had "minimal" effect.
"As weak as the data are for adults, it is even weaker or less existent for kids. There is little or no compelling data that they worked," says Peter Dicpinigaitis, a pulmonologist from New York City who co-authored the guidelines.
Q: The Consumer Healthcare Products Association list of products that are being withdrawn mentions only brand names. Will drugstores continue to sell their own cough and cold medications for infants?
A: Parents tend to buy brand-name products for their babies, so the store brands represent only a tiny portion of the market, Todd Ringler, a spokesman for the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, said in an e-mail.
The companies that make drugstore brands recommended that retailers withdraw them as well as the more widely sold brand-name products, Ringler said.
Q: What is the short-answer message to parents of young children?
A: "As far as cold medicines in young children, there is no proven benefit and definite proven risk," Atlanta pediatrician Jennifer Shu says.
"Why chance it?"
Contributing: Rita Rubin