My daughter has paracetamol, cuddles and fluids for a cold. The only time she had antihistamines were as prescribed for a spider bite.
Even before this story I never gave my kids anything but acetaminophen or aspirin for colds. The decongestants and antihistamines have never done anything for me but dry me out and give me some mildly unpleasant side effects. The little ones aren’t going to die from a runny nose. I give them something for fever and let them sleep. That’s all that ever really needs to be done.
I never gave cough suppressants to my kids. But decongestants and analgesia and anti-pyretics? Absolutely-with fluids and rest. I never gave anti-diarrheals to my kids, either. I just fed them yogurt and fluids etc.
I agree that the immune system needs to be exposed to stuff, but basic hygiene is overlooked. Good handwashing is one great way to prevent getting the cold in the first place. Humidified air is also good, especially in the winter. Mostly, I think you just have to put up with the drips and the feeling lousy until it passes.
The multisymptom cold meds never really worked for us. I don’t understand how they suddenly don’t work for kids–clearly they help some children. Are they unsafe? They are really saying–I’d like a straight answer on that one.
My rule of thumb for prescribing/recommending meds for the pre-adolescent set for colds, etc:
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Don’t suppress the cough, it’s there for a reason. It helps clear the lungs. Unless they’re shaking themselves to pieces with it. Even then, OTC cough suppressants don’t really work anyway. Dextromethorphan & diphenhydramine have NOT been shown to be effective in kids for coughs from infections.
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Antihistamines are great for allergies and itch. Use it very cautiously for that. But skip it for runny/stuffy nose symptoms. And be especially aware that about 1/4 to 1/3 of kids get paradoxical stimulation from antihistamines like diphenhydramine (Benadryl) so your attempts to sedate them for a plane trip may well backfire.
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Acetaminophen and ibuprofen are safe and effective for reducing fever and pain, in proper doses.
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Decongestants (such as pseudoephedrine or phenylephrine) have not been shown to work in kids, and have a nasty side effect profile, so just skip it.
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Fluids and nasal saline drops/sprays are really the best things for handling the congestion in kids (and adults, frankly). Though in a real pinch, I’ve been known to use a little oxymetazoline spray or drops on my kids when they were so plugged they couldn’t stand it.
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Dairy doesn’t thicken secretions, so go ahead and give it if that’s what they want. Unless they have diarrhea, or just got over it. The bowel tends to be lactase deficient after a bout of diarrhea.
Perhaps DSeid or other practitioners who administer to the pre-pubescent set will pop in and tell us what they do.
I’d stick with acetaminophen, period, if I had kids. Even though you might be sure that they have a cold, I wouldn’t risk aspirin. I guess I’m a little overcautious. My parents gave me aspirin when I had chicken pox. I developed Reyes Syndrome. My parents were very lucky they had a pediatrician who recognized what it was.
Susan
OT: Vicks! I was in the supermarket the other day and I saw Puffs Plus with Vicks. I’ve bought two boxes.
I think I’m addicted to Vicks.
My mom used to put a glob of Vick’s in this little space provided for it in our ancient humdifier. The smell instantly evokes memories of fevers, chicken soup, tea and stories for me…
My daughter is six months old and has had a couple of colds so far, as well as a bad bout of gastro. She made it through the colds with Baby Panadol, Vick’s Baby Balsam on a tissue inside her pyjamas, saline drops, a nasal aspirator (the inimitable snot-sucker!), a humidifier (scented with eucalyptus oil) in her room and tilting her cot to raise her head slightly.
The gastro started with projectile vomiting and proceeded into 2 weeks of 10-15 diarrhea-soaked diapers a day. It was a viral infection, so nothing for it but to dilute the formula and wait and hope for a light at the end of the tunnel. Amazingly, my daughter still gained a pound during those 2 weeks!
We moved from the US to the Netherlands three years ago. Having spent some time here over the years, I brought various cold medicines with me – there is no cold remedy worth spending money on available OTC here, and certainly none for children.* So inevitably my kids caught colds, and ultimately the medicine I had brought with me ran out. So I called the doctor. And he was as usual most agreeable and asked me what I had been giving them so he could give them the same thing. So I took the bottle and read him the label on Children’s tylenol cold & cough.
And you might have thought I had been giving my children rat poison. He was very nice about it, but just couldn’t believe that people actually gave that to young children.
So he gave me something else and I resolved to stock up next time I was home. Which turned out not to be necessary, the seemingly endless cycle of colds we went through that year appear to have been a result of having moved.
I have not missed them enough to buy any more, even though I probably would have used them if they were easily available. But I am very pleased to have had Benadryl available for Eldest, who had a mystery allergic rash for nearly a year until we finally figured out that it was related to the damn bird. He’s outside the age window now, but I certainly would have stockpiled the stuff if this report had come out during that time.
And you know, it’s all very nice to say that a cough should not be suppressed, and that decongestants are not necessary. And I am sure it is true. But at night in particular it is a very nice thing for a child to be able to sleep for more than, say, forty minutes without being awakened by 1) hacking their guts up or 2) choking on their own snot. It is a nice thing for their parents also, particularly when there is more than one child in the household.
WhyNot, I use a peppermint tincture for cold symptoms in my kids pretty often, especially when accompanied with a bad tummy. I imagine it’s dose dependent because I never have noted any side effects. Ginger on the other hand wires 'em up and then dumps them into the basement three hours later so I avoid it – and everybody else I know thinks ginger is the bees knees for kids.
- *and this is because it is easier than you can imagine to go to the doctor – sometimes the doctor comes to you, even. *
I take exception to this. My research is in Infectious Disease, and the topic of unnecessary antibiotics use is kinda a hot topic with that crowd. Rather than go off into a righteous rant on the topic, I would like to point out that some things are restricted for a reason. People certainly do not have the right to consume anything they like. I know you probably weren’t making a statement about antibiotics, but still…it rubs me wrong. Now is the bureaucracy overblown? Probably. But I’d rather error on the side of caution with these things.
You’re right, actually. I used to be anti regulation even on antibiotics, but that’s my one area of exception now. In fact, I think antibiotics should be administered only in emergency situations or with the results of a culture, so they’re HARDER to get than morphine. It’s so annoying as a parent to have the doctor hand you a scrip for Augmentin “in case” this pneumonia is bacterial. But whatcha gonna do? Me? I’m gonna give it to my kid on the best guess of the doctor and feed her lots of yogurt and hope I’m not making a superbug in her lungs this week…
Ear infections I would just refuse the scrip outright, frankly. But a lung infection with a history of BPD makes Mama nervous…
I was already following the exact recommendations that QtM listed (except mine HATED the mucus sucker - I’d just elevate their heads, i.e. spend the night in a chair with them in my lap). I’m not much of one for taking OTC drugs myself, anyway, so giving them to my kids wasn’t my first choice.
There was ONE time when I went ahead and used a cough suppressant, and that was when my daughter’s asthma was becoming apparent (but before it was diagnosed). I KNEW her nighttime cough was a symptom of asthma, but no one would listen; I had to give her some cough meds (on top of the antibiotics she’d been prescribed, which was a total mistake) just so we could all sleep. But I don’t think it helped her lungs any. She contracted RSV from my cousin’s kid a couple of months later and wound up in the hospital, but since that gave us the correct diagnosis (finally) it all worked out OK.
Mucinex (guaifenesin) doesn’t help any, either. She has to go back on Albuterol and Pulmicort whenever she gets a cold.
We never used them in the first place, so no problems with it here.
when old enough of course, my kids and I are going to have robo-chugging contests
It might be more interesting if **Elfbabe ** gave us an estimation of your child cold treatments.
oh god, arent they fantastic?
I was out to dinner with friends when I had my little rhinovirus 3 weeks ago, and someone asked for a tissue, and got a vics infsued one, she sniffed it gushed enthusiastically and made everybody at the table take one to sniff …
but they are fantastic. I adore vicks but hated the greasy smear under the nose…
Well, he’s older now so it’s not a big issue, but I was always reluctant to give them. I was influenced by my day care provider, who had 30 years of experience with kids (and lots and kids with sniffles, coughs, and more). She saw lots of kids who got OTC medicine (at their parents request) and lots who didn’t.
That woman turned out to be right on a lot of things.
We don’t have anything for the kiddies stronger than children’s Tylenol, so no complaints from me.
I am concerned, however, with the argument that some parents, deprived of the “children’s” formulation of OTC cold meds, will attempt to treat their kids with the adult versions, making the risk of overdosing that much worse. Many people are aware of the abuse of antibiotics, yet there are still plenty of parents clamoring for a scrip for their little tot’s latest viral adventure.
How does one go about convincing the general public that this is a Bad Thing?
I hadn’t realized antihistamines were included in the list. I might have to think about that one - having a pile of respiratory allergies myself I know that Benedryl can work wonders.
As for the rest; no, I wouldn’t. My 13 month old has now had a cold hang on for pretty near a month. (right about the time she started daycare) Whee!
I have a 3 year old and another on the way. I have always avoided the multi-symptom cold remedies, preferring to only treat what is most bothersome with single medicines. And I am very careful to dose by weight, and I rarely even give the maximum doseage per day. I usually just let colds run their course, especially if the kid doesn’t seem too unhappy about it.
That said, I think some of these medicines are helpful in some situations and I probably will still keep them on hand. I found Mucinex to work quite well for one chest cold that was just going on and on. Given during the day, it seemed to help him with more productive coughs. When another cold was especially bad, I gave one dose of medicine at bedtime and see if it helps enough to let him sleep, along with other things like humidifiers and the menthol or eucalyptus plug in vaporizers. I haven’t found any cough suppressant to be very useful at all, but my Dr. told me they don’t really work in adults either (and IME, that is true. The only thing that really works is codeine.) Those chest colds are the worst. I don’t think any cough supressants help with those, and you need to be able to cough it up to get it out.
If a kid is really sick though, usually there are going to be 2 or 3 bad nights no matter what you do, so I don’t keep giving more medicine if it didn’t help the first time. I think that is how many kids get overdosed - it doesn’t seem to be helping so they give more. For stuffy noses the saline sprays work as well as anything, I think, and they are safe.
So I guess I will continue to use them carefully, and once in a while, as I have been. I don’t ever keep the kid dosed continually on it for days at a time anyway.