Holiday Season = Cough & Cold Season

Treating children twelve and under with cough & cold medicines may lead to accidental overdose.

The holidays are right around the corner! Traditions, large meals, family gatherings, snowball fights, cold weather, …colds. Yep, along with the fun holiday season comes cold weather – and cough & cold season.

 

Why Children?

Children are especially susceptible to colds because they often spend lots of time with other children and frequently aren’t cognizant about regularly washing their hands and covering their mouth and nose when they cough and sneeze. Infants and preschool children are particularly vulnerable to the common cold because they haven’t yet developed resistance to most of the viruses that cause them. 

As a child, my cold symptoms were treated with a steady dosage of Robitussin®. Recently, the FDA has come out with warnings suggesting some decongestants may be inappropriate for children under the age of twelve. I wanted to find out a little more about this issue, so I stopped by our Verona Hometown location and talked to Gary Bongey, the local Hometown pharmacist.

Gary’s Opinion
Gary explained many cough & cold medicines, like Sudafed® contain pseudoephedrine, which can have unintended side effects such as increased heart rate, constriction of the nasal mucus membranes, drowsiness, and dizziness. Children are especially susceptible to these side effects, due to the fact that they have reduced body weights and, therefore, are frequently the victims of accidental overdose.

Gary went on to say that these accidental overdoses are sometimes caused by what he calls “home dosing”. In his words: “Back in the old days, you could dose a two year old and a twenty year old out of the same bottle; so you ended up with people saying: well, you know if my twenty year old gets two teaspoonful’s, then my one year old gets one teaspoonful, and that’s just too much…too many side effects.”

Surrogate Treatments
Instead of using cough & cold syrups, Gary suggested a couple of safer options for children under the age of twelve. Saline nasal sprays were highly recommended by him to clear up congestion. Another safe option is the use of personal home steamers. Personal steamers work by easing congestion and dryness though the use of warm steam. Gary added that it is still acceptable to use acetaminophen (Tylenol®) or ibuprofen to treat fevers associated with cough & colds.

We have a full line of saline nasal sprays, personal steamers, and decongestants (for the teens and adults!) at all of our Hometown pharmacies, stop in for a free consultation with your local Hometown pharmacist!

Happy Holidays from all of us at Hometown Pharmacy!

 

DeForest Hometown Pharmacy