What do you do when your child comes home from school sniffling? Or has a nagging cough? Or has a slight fever? Do you run right to the store to get some cough and cold medicine?
Many OTC medicines treat the symptoms only, rather than the illness itself, so you should determine just how uncomfortable your child is before doling out the medicine. Medicines are most effective against severe symptoms rather than minor symptoms. A slight case of the sniffles doesn’t require medicine but severe congestion can benefit from a decongestant. Use simple common sense or call your pediatrician to determine the severity of your child’s symptoms.
Also take your child’s age into consideration when determining if she needs medicine. Infant OTC medicines have been deemed unreliable for treating symptoms. Children under the age of 2 risk the possibility of severe, life-threatening side effects from some OTC medicines and the FDA is currently reviewing the guidelines for toddlers.
Considering that these medicines are all man-made and full of chemicals, do we really want our children ingesting medicines that might cause them harm, especially if they don’t really need it? If there’s any question about the effectiveness, why risk the possible side-effects?
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