Why are all medicines now 6+?

[Boozilla]

I realise I could probably research this on the web but thought the wisdom of MN would be much faster!!

I bought some Benylin Chesty Cough today as the bottle I had was out of date. I looked at them and the ingredients are identical, the quantities identical. Yet the new bottle says for children 6+, the old bottle says for children 1-12 years.

I seem to recall that this was a reaction to parents unwittingly overdosing children with paracetamol and ibuprofen because they weren't aware what was in any subsequent cough/cold medicines. Is that correct?

I guess my question is, would my 15month old explode if I gave her a little 2.5ml spoonful to help loosen the mucus on her chest? The pharmacist would give me nothing other than some useless honey linctus shit which will achieve absolutely nothing. Failing that we will be at the docs tomorrow!

Thanks for any thoughts!

I thought it was because of accidental overdoses - not sure it was linked to the paracetomel? Not sure myself.

When DS has a cough, steamy hot bath before bed and giving his room a good clean seemed to be best. I'm not sure how good cough medicines are anyway - I've never found them effective myself!

It is due to side effects of the ingredients rather than the possibility of overdose. They were also shown to not work very well in young children.

the age was changed in 2009

cough medicines

p.s. in the absence of a chest infection your doctor would probably advise steam and calpol and not much else