Improper Dosing of Cough Medicine Sends 7,000 Children to ER Each Year
The FDA had been issuing very strong warnings lately about administering cough medicine to toddlers under 2.
Today some official numbers were released that are very scary.
In their first estimate, the U.S. government believes that cough and cold medicines send about 7,000 children to hospital emergency rooms each year.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that bout two-thirds of the cases were children who took the medicines unsupervised. However, about one-quarter involved cases in which parents gave the proper dosage and an allergic reaction or some other problem developed.
About two-thirds of the cases were children who took the medicines unsupervised. However, about one-quarter involved cases in which parents gave the proper dosage and an allergic reaction or some other problem developed.
Because it is believed that an estimated 1,600 of the 7,100 children are under 2, the FDA's new recommendations, if followed, will hopefully reduce such ER visits by 23 percent.
The most common symptoms reported were allergic reactions like hives and itching and neurological symptoms like drowsiness and unresponsiveness.CDC researchers said that most of the medicines involved were liquid combinations of cough and cold treatments.
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