would you use medised despite guidelines?

[pamelat]

Medised used to be for 6 months plus, then changed to 2 years, now apparently changed/changing to 6 years.

My friend is GP and has told me its because parents were combining with calpol and over dosing their children, and also because parents were using it to sedate

My DS has yet another chest infection. He is 8 months old, big robust baby.

He is full of cold. He can not breathe. He can not sleep. Literally he can not sleep, he will doze off and 20 mins later wake crying. Have been alternating calpol/nurfon and using teething powders all day et nothing is working.

His big sister is 3 and we used medised with her when she was 2 (it was allowed then)

I dont have medised in the house. DD not needed any for a long time, am thinking of getting some tomorrow and giving it DS, just 2.5 ml at night for him to breathe/sleep

What do you think, unreasonable/irresponsible or practical/necessary?

I used it with DS1 when he needed it, although it doesn't work for DS2 as it sends him loopy and stops him sleeping. Gave my last bottle to a friend with a smaller baby after the bottle changed, but would probably use it again if I had another baby.

LeonieDelt The below is from NHS.uk. I checked because, as I said, I am only a student at the moment. Antihistamines dry up secretions and so relieve coughing. But the point is the same, you should speak to your GP before administering medised to a child under 6.

Cough suppressants, such as pholcodine, dextromethorphan and antihistamines, act on the brain to hold back the cough reflex. They are used for dry coughs only.
Pholcodine and dextromethorphan have few side effects or interactions with other medicines.
Antihistamines sometimes cause drowsiness, which can be helpful if your cough is disrupting your sleep. Other possible side effects are a dry mouth, constipation, difficulty in passing urine and blurred vision. Antihistamines might interact with other medicines, such as antidepressants and those that cause drowsiness.
Check with your GP or pharmacist before taking cough suppressants.

One other, possibly unhelpful, thought on this - my DD had a very bad cough before Christmas and I was tempted to give her some Medised but I was worried that if she was knocked out by it that she might not wake if she was coughing/choking in her sleep.

Yes would do, have done, minimally, following the clear instructions for under 6s on the enclosed leaflet/box. Very handy when ordinary paracetomol syrup wouldn't do the job half as well.
Doesn't knock them out that much, ime, just enough to help them get a bit of badly needed rest.

Do you leave the rads on all night, Earwicga?

The original change in age guidance for medised from 6months plus to 2 years old was because studies and in-use monitoring implicated the diphenhydramine ingredient in SIDS. The diphenhydramine can cause heart arryhthmias. It can also cause paradoxical agitation and excitation. Those in the younger age groups are more prone to the adverse effects.

Accidental paracetamol overdose is obviously an issue but tbh is an issue with lots of cold and flu remedies for all ages. The reason for the change was more a minimal benefit over paracetamol coupled with the increased adverse effects that led to the changes. Medication is rarely fully studied pre-release on children for ethical reasons and it can take time to discover these things, or at least evidence for them. If they are discovered the regulatory authorities are duty bound to act.

I second auntpolly's comments on cough suppressants. During an infection the body produces extra mucus. The cough reflex unpleasant as it is is the body's protection mechanism to get rid of this mucus. To suppress this would reduce the amount being removed from the body therefore increase the amount there potentially pushing it further into the chest and prolonging the congestion.

I am really sorry your DC isn't well and you are not getting sleep. I hope he is better soon.

Yes I use it.

Do antihistamines help at all with mucus clog up? I imagined that they might reduced swelling in over-irritated membranes/throats/lungs, and that by reducing inflammation just a little that could help (just a little) ease breathing and reduce the severity of "tickly" irritation coughs.

I did use it for my dd before the guidelines were changed. However, I will not use it for my ds. I would feel like a complete fool if for some reason my ds needed medical treatment and I had to tell them I had given Medised or if he had a bad reaction to it. Why would anyone want to risk any ill effects? I would feel like a complete idiot and as guilty as hell because it is not intended for use in young children.

My mums french doctor prescribed a linctus for her when she was only 9 months old for a cough when we were on holiday. I took the same bottle to my english doctor when she was ill a few weeks later and he said it was the same ingredient as medised.

The french philosophy on coughing children seems to be that they need to sleep to get well.

To answer your question: Yes I would.
I used it on my DD before the guidlines were changed and I have continued to use it if it's been required. Bit only because she had it before and it was fine.

the chemist in my mums town sells medised with the old packaging, 3+months.

when i question them about it they say they are changinging the packaging over and it will soon say 6+yrs.

they have been telling me this for 3 years now (they obviously don't remember me)

how long does it take to change the packaging if it's so unsafe for under 6? days? weeks? perhaps months but 3 years?!

I wasn't saying diphenhydramine was a cough supressant. I was referring to diphenhyramine in relation to medised and the OP. However my comment about cough suppressants was in relation to auntpolly's comment about pholcodeine which is a cough suppressant and has also now been made 6 plus.

I would and I have.

Ok Leonie, I will grab the first consultant I can tomorrow and ask for clarification. We agree that antihistamines dry up secretions, I was under the impression that drying up mucus alleviates coughing, and that is why I hear antihistamines referred to as cough suppressants... not because they suppress the cough reflex itself. It seems like a generic term to me, but clearly it isn't and I apologise for misusing it and upsetting you. Can I ask what line of work you are in? You seem to know your drugs pretty well.

Dd2, 10 months had dreadful cold recently. Nights and nights of hellishness due to snotty nose. I gave her half a spoonful of medised, her nose cleared enough for her to sleep and she slept for 6 hours. So yes, as a last resort I would. Vapour rub on feet is also good bug we had gone beyond that.

Many childrens coughs are caused by mucous running down back of throat when lying down and therefore medised can alleviate a cough in this case by drying up the mucous.

I, as have many other parents, have used it for years and it works.

If the cough is related to an allergic reaction then antihistamine is a good bet, says here.

Decongestants suggested as best for tickly coughs on same page.

Leonie can I just point out that guaphenesin is not indicated in those under 6 nor are decongestants. MHRA

It also covers the labelling issue. The new labelling should have been used since last winter. I'm curious about what the expiry is on those bottles still on sale.

March 2012 expiry date, since you asked, xstitch. I've been using it for my 6yo lately, but used it once or twice for the 2yo in the past year (per instructions on the box).

Honey and lemon really didn't help with 6yo DS's cough. I wouldn't use anything else if those worked.

ragged I wasn't suggesting they were out of date, sorry if you thought that they usually have quite a long expiry. Was just wondering if the chemist had had them a while or if the manufacturer wasn't complying with the guidelines.

watches thread with interest.

Who, me? Give Out of Date meds? Pas possible.

Not just back stocks still being sold in chemists, I reckon that some bottles sold here are also sold in other countries which may not have the proscription on U6s having, for instance, Medised. Hence the inconsistent/confusing labelling.

Thread has been helpful to me, I get so confused about the different types of cold meds. I will get children's decongestant in, would be better to try for DS who can worry me by being a bit respy. Medised & Benadryl just happened to be all I had in the house this weekend, though.

I give it to my 2yo. But then the bottle we have is so old it stills says it's suitable for 2yos and has dosage instructions on it. So I think I can be fairly sure we're not overdosing the DDs on it!

Once this bottle runs out we will be getting more to give to the DDs - nearly 3yo and 5yo. It's a godsend when they have a nasty cold.

That's what I was saying ragged . I was agreeing you wouldn't give out of date medicines.

You're probably right about parallel imports being part of the reason for the confusing labelling. These should be over-labelled with British labelling to reduce the chance of confusion