Question regarding children's medicines?

[redleader]

Most children's medicines go up to 6 years old and then 6 – 12. What prescribes the 6 years old, is it age alone or weight / BMI. Reason I’m asking is my son is 5 and the cough bottle I’m using isn’t helping. He’s a big 5 year old so can I give him the 6 year old medicine?

Is it cough syrup then all that is is sugar, although some simple linctus does help soothe.

6+ medicine is often a different strength. It will have more medicine per ml in it. Calpol is a good example. We give 6+ in hospital to smaller children but that's because we can work out the exact amount. In hospital it's weight but we also have an age range.

Cough medicine is generally ineffective to start.

In many cases you shouldn't try to prevent coughs for a reason- the cough is trying to get any crap out of the lungs.

Honey + lemon is just as good as anything you can buy without prescription.

My almost 5 year old is very big for her age, and throughout the year has suffered from tonsillitis, and the GP actually prescribed the 6 plus paracetamol because she was big enough for it.
I don't know about the cough medicines though. I usually just give her honey and have steam in her room at night.