Cough and Cold Medicines hospitalize thousands

More than 7,000 children are admitted to hospitals each year because of the intake of cough and cold medicines that cause adverse reactions, said the U.S. government on Monday after drawing estimates of the risks posed by the Over The Counter and prescription medicines for cold.

The report was prepared after analyzing the data from a nationally representative sample of 63 emergency rooms in 2004 and 2005.

In more than half the cases, children took drugs without their parents’ supervision. While in one-third of the cases, allergies were responsible for illness in children who actually received proper dosage of the medicines.

According to the study, almost about two-thirds of the cases involved kids aged between 2 and 5, while one fourth were less than 2 years of age.

"Anytime a child ends up in the emergency department because they had access to a bottle of medication, that is a problem that could be prevented," said Daniel S. Budnitz of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which conducted the research.

The U.S. Food and Drug administration has of late, been largely concerned about the undesirable effects of cough and cold medicines in children has imposed several restrictions on their use.

The questionable effectiveness and risks of OTC cold drugs has prompted the agency to be more firm on checking their use.

"These really are situations where parents were perhaps confused and gave the wrong dosage or inadvertently left out their medication in a way that children could get into them," said Linda A. Suydam of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, defending the effectiveness of the products and their safety.

An FDA advisory panel, however, voted against the medicines saying that there was no evidence to suggest their effectiveness and recommended discontinuation of their use in children younger than 6.