in not wanting them to raise the age of cough/cold remedies to 6???

[Natt82]

They are now going to raise medised/tixylix etc to the age of 6!

Apparently they dont work. I know many parents (myself included) that would argue that they do in fact work - both my boys have them only when horrendously full of phlem and snot, but they work so well at giving them some rest.

Surely raising the packaging to dosage over 6 is going to cause more problems? Parents who have used it in the past will continue to use it, yet wont have the correct dosage instructions.

news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Cough-And-Cold-Medicines-For-Children-List -Of-Doubtful-Drugs-By-MHRA/Article/200903115231743

AIBU to want to keep buying this stuff for my 31mo and 1yr old and going out today to stockpile the stuff?

Natt x

Medised et al have never worked to give my DS any extra sleep and Nurofen just makes him go wild!!

Personally I don't use these types of medicines on my children. A good dose of steam and a honey and lemon drink would do just as well I think.

YABU, by the way

I've always found medised very helpful when my kids are congested. I always followed the dosage instructions to the letter, not mixing with other cold medications and counting the paracetamol doses. There has never been anything to suggest that using it in this way is unsafe so personally I have continued to do so with my under 2 yr old and will continue with under 6 even if they change the rules.

All because some people are too stupid to follow the directions properly.

YANBU

Another link news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7917188.stm "But it stressed there were no specific safety concerns with the medicines it examined"

Incidentally steam inhalation is not recommended for children due to the risk of scalding. I have taken mine into a hot steamy bathroom though and just been extremely vigilant.

I think ist is a welcome move.

Honey, lemon and a drop of olbas oil is much more effective in most cases.

Many people use the wrong med for the cough

And finally a cough is (usually) actually part of the immune system. A cough actually treats the underlying cause......

Blimey, I'm glad they didn't bring this in when ds was tiny. A humidifier and Medised got us through many a cold.

Dangfando, do invest in a humidifier - no risk of scalding.

Those plug in vaporisers are good as well, Karvol, Olbas, Sudafed etc all do one.

Medised always worked with my 2, both helping them sleep and for helping with their colds, but usually I would rub Vicks on their chest, or use Karvol (very underrated stuff) and Calpol/Nurofen, occasionally junior Sudafed.

YANBU. If it works for your kids then what's the issue? I don't personally find cough medicines to be very good with my dd; but to say OP IBU is OTT.

YANBU as they said, it's not 'harmful' just in their opinion they don't work. Well, if in your opinion they do, then carry on! Keep the old boxes, compare the ingredients - it's not hard to work out the correct doses. Of course, it would be even easier if they just left things alone!!

The Lo's very rarely have them, but we did find they helped the horrid coughs they had this winter. We used them at night for about a week and they seemed to ease the cough enough to allow them to get some sleep.

Dangerous.

If they don't work, I presume they don't for everybody (leaving aside of course the fact that people on this thread have said they do!).

All medicines are potent, if they only have dosing instructions for the over 6s then there are going to be an awful lot of under 6s who do get the wrong dose.

YANBU.

If they don't work then they would be safer withdrawing them from the market full stop.

what I don't understand is why - if they don't work - they just don't take away the licences. If they don't work they don't work - so why an age of 6, do they suddenly work for 7yo's?

It will only discredit the authority of what goes on the label. People will use it anyway and then when there is another med that really isn't sutable for young shildren, people will question whether that is really so or if it just another case of nanny state gone mad. Few things annoy me more than medical advice which is held back because the doctor (or medicine label) thinks I'm too stupid to comprehend it.

YANBU

I agree tixylix doesn't work but I don't think any cough medicines do really. Medised has really helped my two when they have been unable to breathe at night, not sure it makes them drowsy but it definitely eases congestion and helps them get to sleep that way.

I do use karvol plug ins/olbas/vicks etc but medised helps when those don't.

I have given up on cough medicines for anyone anyway-they simply don't work!

My dd has a terrible rattling cough and I bought her Tixylix yesterday, did I just waste my money???

I will steam her shortly and then put a bowl of water in her room with Olbas in it and she will get a warm drink with honey in it before bed, this is my usual treatment but she also gets medicine before bedtime.

I never found that they worked with my DCs but each to their own.

There does, however, seem to be some secret agenda going on with this. There seems to be the suggestion that mothers have been doping up their DCs and, therefore, can't be trusted/too stupid to administer medicine to them.

They have already increased the age which you can give medised over past few years, I remember having it for DD1 when she was 6mths and think it said ok from 3mths but when went to buy for DD2 was told it had been raised to 2yrs. Find it a bit worrying that the advice changes all the time. I very rarely give DD's medicines as I'm the kind of person who almost never takes painkillers myself. I have found in the past though that medised has worked to clear a blocked nose when steaming hasn't helped.

I know that the majority are responsible when it comes to giving their kids medicines but I have been concerned at the attitude of some friends/aquaintances who seem to give calpol etc to their kids even when they're just a bit out of sorts - I think that some people forget that it's paracetamol just because it's in a sweet syrup. I remember watching two parents giving all 3 of their children medicine before we got on a long haul flight and I may be wrong but I don't think that they were all ill, rather that it was being given for the sedative effect.

Long haul flights are tough with little kids, I really wouldn't slam those parents for hoping for a sedative effect.

YANBU to OP.
DS2 got hospitalised about 18 months ago with viral induced wheezing. The way it was explained it to me, he got too full of mucus and so had to wheeze to breathe.

Therefore, since then, when he has a heavy cold, I tend to reach for some mild anti-histamine product (tixylix, etc.), in the hope this will dry him up just a bit, just the margin needed to keep him out of hospital. I can't know for sure that it is that effective, but he hasn't been to hospital since .

what is medised actually meant to do?

I had never heard of it when the dds were small. I have heard quite a few recommendations on mn but mainly just as something to sedate your kids with. Do we need that?

Cough medicines are rubbish. They should ban them completely.

I've done long haul with kids too so know that it can be hellish but still wouldn't give them medicine to keep them quiet!

Pointydog - medised is a paracetamol suspension (like calpol) that has a decongestant in it. I think it does have a stroner sedative affect though as I remember having a panic after giving it to DD1 a few years back and then struggling to get her to wake.

Well I went to Boots today and bought a bottle of the tixylix to see us through. The one we use is the Cough & cold - we dont use it for the cough as such, but it is wonderful at drying up snot. We have olbas, vicks and steamed rooms but sometimes they just arent enough. I dont really use cough mixtures on any of us, but this mix one is fantastic IMO, and so little is needed. Interestingly Boots didnt even bat an eyelid - they didnt even ask me which child it was for, even though DS2 was the obviously ill one and both my kids were under 3.

We also used medised when DS2 was 9 months old and caught chicken pox - the GP told us to, as he couldnt have piriton and apparently there is a similar ingrediant in medised.

I agree with a previous poster though - if they think they dont work, why not take them away completely? And if they didnt work, would they still be so popular? Surely there wouldnt be a market as people wouldnt bother?

My bottle say from 2 years and comparing it is the same ingrediants and dosage for 1yr+ on the old bottle which makes it easier for me.

I'm glad I wasnt BU. Dh was horrified when I told him this morning - he swears by the stuff for the kiddies!

still sounds like people like it so much due to th esedative.

What is the huge advantage of drying up snot? I still don't geddit