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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

121 replies

Natt82 · 01/03/2009 08:28

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

OP posts:
littlelamb · 02/03/2009 00:07

The only time I ever gave dd medised was when the pharmacist told us to get it when she had chicken pox. It did not send her to sleep, quite the opposite in fact, it sent her up the wall and after one night of hyperactivity which shocked me tbh I threw the whole bottle away. I have to say that before chicken pox I had never used it and had only heard of other parents talking about it in the context of it sending their children to sleep. I can understand some of that desperation (hey, look at the time, I am up because my ds just will not stay asleep) but I think if there is the potential for it to be abused that way then upping the age limit has to be a good thing. I agree that the plug ins can be a good alternative- my parents got one for ds when we were staying at christmas and he was full of cold, and I found it surprisingly effective.

nannyL · 02/03/2009 00:49

i have always used medised when children / babies have heavy colds and always found they seem to sleep much better as a result.

i use an adult verson for myskef if suffering from a heavy cold and i know i sleep better too

been talking to my dr friends about this tonight... apparently young children / babies dont have necessary receptors for some drugs to work (when they work on adults) the example given was salbutamol (ventilin) which i didnt realise....

even so i think medised is worth its weight in gold when children have heavy colds and seems better than calpol

nannyL · 02/03/2009 00:51

also Drs can prescribe anyone anything if they want to... so if you could convince your dr AND he hadnt been sent latest research saying its dangerouse AND his nhs trust / surgary whatever supported it (I know some wont prescribe calpol wtc and make u buy it) then they can prescribe what they like

expatinscotland · 02/03/2009 00:53

Just lie about it and buy them anyway.

The British and their stiff upper lips and paracetemol-as-panacea mentality.

Why bother letting it get you down?

Do what works and be damned with all their poppycock.

Better living through chemistry.

When I have a heavy cold, I like a goddamned sedative so I can get the sleep I need to heal my body.

Why wouldn't my child? So they can suffer through it and that makes them tough?

What a load.

expatinscotland · 02/03/2009 00:55

Oh, yes, ban it.

So we can all go back to the shot of brandy followed by sucking on half an orange our grandmothers used.

Then they had all the time in the world to put up with the unnecessary?

Saltire · 02/03/2009 08:17

I'm dreading going into work today, we will have to remove products, etc and no doubt will get abuse from customers like we did last time when Medised was re-branded!

AtheneNoctua · 02/03/2009 08:56

What a pain in the arse. WIll have to get my sis to ship cough medicine from the states so that it will come with proper dosing guidelines. Oh, now there's an idea. I guess I could just google ameircan equivalents and get dosing information online. Gosh, you'd think people who can't follow instructions would not have the mental capacity to do a google search.

Self medicate everyone... because that will be safer for the population as a whole.

I know an anesthetist who used to regularly medicate her small boys for naptime. I can't remember what she used. I think it started with a p and it was regarded as a step up from medised. I presume she knew exactly what she was doing.

littlelamb · 02/03/2009 09:02

'I know an anesthetist who used to regularly medicate her small boys for naptime'

I'm sorry but do you really think that that's OK?!

BonsoirAnna · 02/03/2009 09:03

Give your children hot baths instead to relieve them of phlegm. And keep them indoors when they are ill.

AtheneNoctua · 02/03/2009 09:04

I think she is better qualified to judge than I am. They are her kids and she is a doctor. What could possibly qualify me to know better?

littlelamb · 02/03/2009 09:06

But she is drugging them unnecessarily and regularly

AtheneNoctua · 02/03/2009 09:08

But..
1)They are her kids, not mine.
2)She is an anaesthetist. So presumably she knew far better than you or me what she was doing.

BonsoirAnna · 02/03/2009 09:10

Gosh Athene what faith in the medical profession .

I have in my life been treated by doctors from several countries/cultures and had the slightly unnerving (initially) experience of being given completely contradictary advice by doctors trained/experienced in differing medical cultures.

Which taught me to take it all with a pinch of salt and do my own research .

LtEveDallas · 02/03/2009 09:20

Athene - probably Phenergen. Nasty horrible stuff. Really surprised that a doctor would do something so reckless. Her kids will probably be on Oxy by the time they are 12.

tengreenbottles · 02/03/2009 10:34

i have to admit that i gave up on these over the counter remedies years ago after a really rough winter ,when my ds had endless colds and croup . I actually said to the pharmacist in boots 'which of these actually work ? ' and she said 'honestly? none of them '. I now go with good old fashioned hot baths with olbas oil in ,raise the end of the bed ,switch the heating off in the bedroom (unless its really cold and then i put a big bowl of water on the windowsill),plenty of fluids and calpol if they have a temp
I have to say that my brother was given phenergan as a small child ,as he was born with a hair lip and cleft palate and his tubes were narrowed and everytime he got a cold he would end up with an ear infection,our old gp told my mum to give him phenergan at bedtime as it dryed him up overnight . He was never given it for more than a few days and only when really snotty .
I guess you could use piriton liquid to get a similar effect .

tengreenbottles · 02/03/2009 10:36

Phenergan makes me laugh ,because last time i looked at a bottle there was still dosing instructions for sedating a child on it

Eve4Walle · 02/03/2009 10:46

I read some reserach a while back that said that children given Phenergan were more likely to have difficulties with sleeping later in life, which is certainly true for my DH who was given it on a regular basis as a child and now has a very odd relationship with sleep to say the least. Off topic tho...

Medised made my DD very sleepy, I only gave it to her once because it made her a zombie, we couldn't wake her for hours and hours and it scared us. So it does work in my view. However, cough medicines never did anything for her at all, and I gave up using them in the end. My Doctor told me they are a waste of money, in his words, not mine!

Olbas oil, hot baths, steamy bathrooms, some Snuffle Babe and a bit of Karvol on a muslin are all good alternatives IMO.

alardi · 02/03/2009 11:08

Olbas oil -- how is it different from Karvol?

GreenMonkies · 02/03/2009 13:12

I think there is some confusion about cough medicines which soothe etc, (like buttercup syrup) and cough suppressants, (like codiene and anthistamines). The suppressants like codiene (tixilyx) and dextromethorphan (benylin) do work, I don't use codiene because it is known to constipate, produce vivid dreams or nightmares and it is "habit forming", so when my two are full of snot I give them benylin childrens cough and cold, it does help dry up the mucus and ease the cough, I don't think it sedated, but that could just be because my girls are both a bit hyper and don't sleep brilliantly at the best of times.

I shall continue to use these kind of medicines when they are really snotty and coughing mainly because sleep is the best medicine, and easing these symptoms helps them sleep.

SlightlyMadScotland · 02/03/2009 17:08

olbas oil is not different from Karol (or if it is it is subtle differences - it is just a different brand of the same stuff).

Eve - you say Medised works because it sedates. Medised isn't actually designed to sedate. The sedation is a SIDE EFFECT.

thinkingabout3 · 02/03/2009 17:26

I have given and will continue to give my children medised and tixylix. Last week my 2 year old coughed all night, and when I say all night, I mean literally from 7pm until 6am with no more than a minute between coughs. The next night she started off the same way and by 10pm felt so sorry for her that I absolutely had to do something as vicks, and warm drinks were doing nothing. I have her one spoonful of medicine and she got a good nights sleep. It works and I will continue to use it. I truly believe that used sensibly these medicines are not dangerous and that they can be effective. I don't feel a need to dry up snot during the day but at night I do feel the need to help my child to get some sleep

Eve4Walle · 02/03/2009 19:30

SlightlyMad - on the bottle of Medised I had, it said that it encouraged sleep....

pointydog · 02/03/2009 19:46

"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."

That is just what I was thinking, slightlymad

SlightlyMadScotland · 02/03/2009 19:49

That's a tagline to sell it to parents...drowseyiness is a known side-effect of anti-histamines and Medised have used that - in part - to sell their products to parents who want to encourage sleep. Just like the formula companies make follow on milk so they can advertise.

It is just down to clever (and IMO) inappropriate marketing.

pointydog · 02/03/2009 19:50

the story of the anaesthetist proves nothing. What a horrible and odd story.

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