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

Pointy...the advantage is that the bugs causing teh cough and cold don't get washed away so are more liekly to thrive in teh body.

sadly the advantage is for the bugs not hte patient.

am with dangfango and marlasinger - I'd not use it unless all else fails but sometimes its the only thng that works.

so it's of no real benefit to anyone to dry up snot (it is an odd idea).

Which brings up bacxk to sedATIVE.

Ban it

I find it a great help to dry up snot. Ds2 especially has suffered from breathing problems at night (suspected asthma) and if he is suffering from a bad cold it can be awful for him - drying it up can help his breathing immensenly. We mainly use olbas oil, but if he's still bad we use a little medicine.

Don't get me wrong, the one small bottle I have has lasted us over a year and will last another good few months. I just dont like the fact this option will be taken away from us because of the way some people have OD'd their children, or someone else deciding it doesnt work for their kids (or the children/lab rats in this particular study). Of course a medicine doesnt work for everyone, but in our case it does help.

I dont use it any medicine as a sedative. I like to make my children comfortable enough that they can have a restful sleep, as rest/sleep can help with illness. And I know myself how rubbish I feel with a bad cold - and how awful it was when I was pregnant not being able to take anything.

DS2 has another bad one at the moment - but in 3 days we have only used the medicine twice. I have done a lot of fresh air, olbas oil, steaming - all of which help to a point. What annoys me though is the idea that thats as far as I would be able to go in the future, when I know something else can relieve him more.

I question the medical basis behind some people's opinions here.

Dd2 is a blocked up, gunky kid and always has been. She has asthma and all teh rest of it so I know all about it. But being a bunged up kid does not aggravate her asthma and I have not heard of too much snot being a trigger for asthma.

When DS had a bad cough this winter, I would have cheerfully bitten anyone who tried to take the Tixylix away - it was the ONLY stuff that stopped him coughing continuously and waking every ten minutes.

If they were dangerous, I could understand it, but saying they don't work is a bit bloody sweeping. That one did work. And saved my sanity.

Like I said, ours is still is the suspected stage - he is only 11.5 months after all. All I know is that when he has a bad cold (not just sniffles) his coughing/breathing is affected and we have to start on the inhalors again if we're not careful. This time round (touch wood) I've given the tixylix (1 year plus on the bottle, I wont quibble the 10 days) and we've thus far avoided the inhalor.

But asthma can be triggered by different things for different people cant it? I used to suffer as a child - and my main trigger? Heating vents in cars - one of those going could set me off within minutes.

Dh has allergen hayfever - so bad every year he ends up on steriods/inhalors/nebulisers/in hopsital. Every year they investigate for something new, before agreeing its hayfever. I'd never heard of hayfever like that before I was married to him.

(Much to my GPs disgust I think!) I discuss most things like this with my doctor in phone consultations, so am only really going from their advice.

YABU. These medicines are not good for children. A honey and lemon drink works just as well or better.

not always it doesn't, mumeeee. we tried EVERYTHING. Tixylix was the only thing that meant we got some sleep and noone went insane.

I think they have reviewed cough medicines for adults too, recent evidence has shown they don't have much effect on adults either. My GP has always told me not to waste my money and I have taken his advice. Steam, olbas oil and maybe ventolin are the only things that have helped dd in the past but each to their own.

I can't see anywhere that they are going to ban medised - surely that comes under paracetamol based product, or am I missing something?

I know there are different triggers for asthma, just never heard of snot being one

Why do I want to clear up snot? Because I'd rather do that than watch my child struggling to breathe and unable to sleep. I think lack of sleep isn't particularly conducive to recovery from a cold either. And you can't treat the cause of a cold. It's a virus. All you can do is alleviate the symptoms until it goes away.

My youngest's breathing always gets very rattly when he has a cold. It's not asthma as far as I know, just the fluids/mucous in his throat (as explained to me a paediatrician). When it gets bad it's horrible and we get very disturbed nights as he can't sleep well like that. So I give medised, along with karvol plugin/vicks vapour rub. It works, he gets better and stays happy instead of being tired and miserable as well as poorly. It has never been suggested that given correctly the medicine is harmful. So I really can't see that I'm doing a bad thing.

Edam - I have been looking at humidifiers since we got back so any recommendations would be welcome.

Here is the list of affected (and not affected) prodcts - Medised will become 6+

List 1 - Note that those in GREEN are NOT AFFECTED

list 2 It appears that there will be some produts that are only suitable for} 12yrs+ which isn't clear from teh news articles.

Oh and the reason for removing is to do with RISK v BENEFIT.

There is a real risk of excess drowsiness, hallucinations and other side effects. These are now percieved to outweigh the essentially minimal health benefits. (minimal because they don't work particularly efficiently in most; and the benefits they do bring are not "life saving"...

I wonder if you would still be able to get medicines like this on prescription for younger children?

I only ask because when we had chicken pox at 9 months the GP recommended the medised because he couldnt have piriton and they said it would help (he had a bad case, on antivirals and almost hospitalised) The recommended was 2 years, but the GP gave us the dosage etc for the 9mo.

I wonder if they would be able to still do this if the benefit does outweigh the risk to certain patients?

Well, based on this revelation I haven't given DD2 any benylin tonight, and I am sitting here listening to her cough and cough and cough.............. She didn't cough last night when she'd had some medicine

It was on the news years ago that cough medicines were ineffective. I never use anything like that with mine as they're rubbish. I don't see why people want to fill their children with crap anyway when steam works better along with a honey drink. If it isn't safe for under a certain age, and I doubt they came to this decision lightly, then don't use them. So sick of the argument of, "Well it didn't do mine any harm". Very medical.

In the case of medised I'm sure I remember reading that it could cause young childre to sleep too heavily and then forget to breathe, ie cot death. Don't quote me on that but I'm pretty sure I read it. Either way, if it's not safe, don't do it.

Cough medicines except ones with large amounts of codeine don't work for anyone. GPs rarely prescribe them these days and very few docs I know buy this stuff for themselves and their kids. They just stick to paracetamol and ibuprofen, preferably unbranded as cheaper. Otrivine nasal spray is sometimes handy for congestion, no idea if that is to be banned. I think buying overpriced placebos is just a habit many folk get from their parents.

There will still be anti-histamines available on presecription for all ages where necessary.

and here is someone who as experienced first hand one of the side effects

I have always been told that you cannot give honey to children under 1 because of botulism?? So why is honey & lemon so widely recommended? Unless u mean for older kiddies!

That is a pretty good point BlueJellie.

I think they are referring to Honey Lemon cough linctus' and basic glycerol linus' which will have no risk of botulism due to teh method of preperation.

pointydog, the active ingredient in medised is actually an antihistamine. There was a thread on here a while ago about it and someone with a medical background explained that it works by relaxing the airways so easing breathing if the LO is bunged up or coughing. The sedative effect is just the usual side effect of antihistamines.

calpol and nurofen on their own won't sedate children, and ime have the opposite effect. calpol is akin to rocket fuel for my DC.

I'm in two minds about the age being raised as I do know people who have used medised inappropriately on a regular basis, however, I bought some before the age was raised to 2 (DD was 6mo at the time) and we have used it to help her get some sleep on the odd occasion when she has been very poorly and unable to sleep. But, I realise that I've used it because of it's sedative qualities rather than it's medicinal properties which is what they are trying to avoid. I like to think I'm intelligent enough to read the label and use it correctly as a one off/occasional thing, but can fully appreciate that it gets abused and that children need protection from that.

so......yanbu if you are using it appropriately.

cough medicines they should just stop producing if they don't actually work.

Yes it is an anti-histamine. But a very weak Anti-histamine; Stong anti-histamines will relax the airways. in this case it is a weak anti-histamine and used at doses which for most of the population are not actually affective for airway widening (some patients are more responsive than others; most are in the less responsive category).

I ask you this - if an anti-histamine was so good at relaxing the airways why is it not aroutine asthma therapy? Because it isn't actually that potent is the answer.

I agree with SMS. I've had to give dd anti histamine before because she has asthma and that cause other allergies for her, ie coming up in hives and hayfever and it never makes her drowsy or does anything other than help her with the itchiness and hives etc.