Opinions on ban on cold medicine for children?

Question

FDA considers a ban on cold medicine for children.
If they were going to do this, shouldn't it have happened when they banned phenylpropanolamine?
Though they aren't notably effective, isn't 3 or 4 dead kids a year too few to call them unsafe, especially since most of those are overdoses?
Would this eventually have any impact on the American mindset that there's a drug for every problem?
We know that Dimetapp, for instance, is popular because of its sedative properties, not because of any effect it might have on the cold symptoms. Will mothers substitute for a bottle of milk with a bottle of beer?

Answer 1

It is quite a paradox because YA is full of people complaining and ranting about doctors getting rich (ha ha) on medications and wanting to medicate the world, and how meds are evil etc etc YET, almost every kid's parent that I see won't leave the clinic without some sort of Rx. I, personally, think the American society is drug happy. People are on long lists of meds and want more for any tiny symptom, the instant it occurs (try arguing with someone who has a virus why they are not getting antibiotics...). So your question is timely and intriguing. I think kids are given way too many drugs. I have even had patients want their money back for the exam because they didn't get a Rx. Thanks for letting me rant....

Answer 2

I must admit I am not well-informed regarding this issue...But, from what I understand, the FDA announced that it intends to take enforcement action against companies marketing unapproved prescription drug products containing hydrocodone. The action does not affect hydrocodone formulations that have FDA approval. So, basically, this has mostly to do with money and ego?

I also see that the drug has also been an extremely popular drug of abuse and, if improperly used, can lead to breathing problems or cardiac arrest; its use may impair motor skills and judgment. So, it is also being ordered off shelves because of misuse. Hmmmm, does anyone else see a veil of “it’s a danger” being used to cover up issues to do with not only money, ego, but overdoses due to abuse?

I do not see 3-4 kids dying as a result of the ingestion of hydrocodone significant, unless shown to be significantly related to the drug, not overdoses, within empirical works. Three or 4 kids in a sample size required for most statistical analyses would not produce significance....unless of course the initial assumptions for analyses were not met and these 3-4 kids are outliers or extreme scores which have functioned to skew data and muddy results.

I do not understand your inquiries regarding the prudence of withdrawing hydrocodone when phenylpropanolamine was banned. The former is a cough suppressant, the latter, a decongestant. The former acts as a weak agonist at opiate receptors within the central nervous system (CNS). The latter acts directly on both alpha- and, to a lesser degree, beta-adrenergic receptors. Perhaps you are referencing the rationale behind banning each of these drugs. That is, as far as I can glean, reasons that seem to have little to do with "safety"?

I see the FDA’s action’s as a “bark up the wrong tree”. If overdoses are an issue, why is the drug to blame? If ego and money is involved, society gets only a detracted message which I believe is something along the lines of: “well, what can we use NOW when our kids get sick?” “It is dangerous to give our kids cough medicine”. From this, I can see an influx of patients requesting medications from doctors for their children’s colds. A heavier burden on doctors to “treat” the cold virus, which of course, is unnecessary.

I don’t reconcile the relationship you’ve made between banning a drug and a public message that there is a drug for everything. However, I do think the reasons, I see, behind the banning of hydrocodone as evidence that the public likes to medicate unnecessarily, is unable to be patient and tolerant regarding afflictions that simply need to run their course, and that masking symptoms is a display of love (?!) for their children–that they are “doing something” then, rather than allowing their kids to simply “suffer".

Answer 3

Well, we must assume that the agency responsible for the responsibility for authorizing or not medicines, has made a good job, for good or evil, we also there, capable professionals who are responsible for defining agree with the data that reach them, which drugs will be revoked, and which remain in effect, if they are indications that a medicine is not correct for infants, is desirable that are no longer bandage. But also think that according to the news out in the newspapers,the agency this influenced by multinationals, and that is they who dictate what should be done or not. It is in appearance what is happening.

Answer 4

i for my area do no longer believe in chilly medicine in any respect. There are some hazards to it. however the biggest element is that i do no longer think of they actually help. Tylenol or a splash Benadryl might help him sleep and the two are shown to be extra secure than youngster's chilly medicine. additionally you are able to attempt a humidifier interior the mattress room. That has helped my daughter interior the previous. And different than that- rooster soup and issues like ice cream to help sooth the throat artwork particularly a lot and your infant will probable delight in that better than some medicine.

Answer 5

You wouldn't have to ask these good questions if you gave your kids good nutrition.

Dairy products, fast foods of any kind, meat, sugar, etc. do not count as good nutrition but the source of your kid's health problems in the first place.

A cold does not require treatment except with fresh, non-sugared fruit juice, lots and lots of water, and rest. Why drug them up? Their bodies are just trying to get rid of all the garbage you have been shoving down their throats, anyway.

This ban on cold medicine is the tip of the iceberg. Almost any drug, no matter the reason, has a side effect worse than the problem you are trying to drug into submission.