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Cold Management
November 16, 2007
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Children’s cold medicines have been a hot topic lately. So much so, the FDA is debating
their effectiveness and safety. Many pediatricians say parents shouldn’t be swayed
by the slew of choices but to stick with basic remedies.
Janice Sickels says when her children and step-children get colds, the atmosphere
of her home definitely changes. “We have to use a lot of Kleenex. They’re crabby
they’re not feeling good, not eating as well as they usually do. It adds stress
to the whole family because you’re wanting everyone to be well and they’re not.”
That stress usually follows parents into the pharmacy where they are faced with
a slew of choices for treating their child’s cold.
“You walk into the pharmacy and you see an entire wall of products and I’ve been
there at 10 o’clock with my own kid trying to figure out what the best thing is
and knowing what I know it’s very confusing,” says Thomas Schiller a Pediatrician
for Lee Memorial
Health System.
He adds that there are some viable options for easing your child’s cold symptoms.
Dr. Schiller says you just need to know what to look for and what to stay away
from in the pharmacy. He says, “There’s no study to prove that antihistamines help a
cold in children so we don’t recommend them; you get side effects from them. We
don’t recommend decongestions there’s side effects, jitteriness and irritability.”
To manage your child’s pain or fever physicians recommend a basic ibuprofen such
as motrin or advil.
For coughing Dr. Schiller says to look for the letters “D-M”
on the label. “The chemical name is dextramadorphin. That does show that it works
to slow down a cough,” says Schiller.
As for a recommended home remedy, Dr. Schiller says putting saline in your child’s
nose is a safe solution. He says doing this will open up the nostrils and help make breathing easier.
But if your child is cranky, crying and pulling at their ear after
you’ve tried medicine and saline, physicians say the cold has probably turned into
an ear infection which
should be quickly treated by a physician.
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