Infants cold medicine?

Question

Nasty runny nose, nasty cough, no fever though, not yet anyway, knock on wood, what's the best cold medicine out there right now for a one year old?

Answer 1

Infants Tylenol cold. But it`s just a cold. It`s better if you let you baby get over it himself. Will build the immune system.

Answer 2

Unfortunately there is no medicine that's considered safe or effective for your baby's cold.

Infant cold medicines have largely been recalled (voluntary recalls, and there's still plenty on the shelves out there) and pulled from the shelves. The reasons are two-fold, but make most sense when considered together: 1) the active ingredients, in the doses small enough for an infant, are not effective to treat the symptoms you want to alleviate, and 2) especially in larger doses, those ingredients can be dangerous, and the cold medicines have resulted in an enormous amount of ER visits and some deaths. For years, pediatricians have basically told parents "the OTC meds won't help" but parents have administered them anyway -- hey, we all want our kids to feel better -- but, the FDA has finally gotten with the program. Now: the FDA recommends that these medicines not be used AT ALL for children younger than six(6).

So, what can you do? Well, all the old homespun remedies that our moms and their moms talked about are now back in vogue, as it were. Lots of fluids. A cool mist humidifier. Steam (sit in the bathroom with the shower running). Chicken broth if your infant is old enough, warm to her palate but, obviously, not hot. You may want to try Vicks vapor rub *for infants* to help with congestion. Saline drops in the nose. Elevate the crib mattress slightly. And, for babies *older than one year* who also have a cough, a bit of honey -- the darker the better. (But honey should not be given to children younger than one year old, because of the small but serious risk of botulism.)

Also, while you can't administer cold medicines to treat the symptoms of a cold, you *can* give a one year old infant tylenol drops, or infant motrin drops, to alleviate any suspected muscle aches, or reduce a fever is a fever is present, etc.

There's lots of info about if you're interested, many of which talk about what limited things a parent can do, such as: http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/12/14/news/doc47618ebc6132f134457181.txt

Answer 3

To the best of my knowledge, all over the counter cough and cold medicines for children under 6 years of age have been voluntarily pulled from the market by the manufacturers. There are still pain relievers (Tylenol, Advil), but none containing decongestants and cough medicines.

Answer 4

These have been recalled recently due to common overdosing. The are still on the shelf but are not suggested by any doctor that you speak to. The only helpful thing suggested for a stuffy nose is a nasal aspirator.

That being said- I still use tylonel cough and cold only because I am not a moron and can properly read directions and dose my child.

Answer 5

there is a lot of doctors that recommend dimatap altough its not infant my neice takes it and she just turned one she is sick a lot cause she was born very premature and dimatap is what the docotrs told them to give her just give her the lowest dose on the little syringe i have givin it to my son too and he just turned 2

Answer 6

Tylenol Cold!!! Works great and I know it's safe. Give the pediatrician a call - it won't hurt.