Children’s drugs get a check-up
I grumble about the incompetence of today’s parents a lot. It’s no secret that I think new-fangled “diseases” such as ADD and ADHD are nothing more than kids being kids – and parents NOT being parents. I shudder to think that the future of this great nation is going to be largely in the hands of children who were diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder and have been dependent on drugs nearly from infancy.
Something I haven’t spilled much ink over – but that is equally deserving of ridicule, in my eyes – is the absurd action of sedating children with OTC cold and allergy drugs. It’s a whole new level of irresponsibility and selfishness on the part of parents, caregivers, and anyone else who thinks children should come with an on/off switch.
Newsflash: It doesn’t work that way.
Still, that hasn’t stopped a portion of the population from drugging (yes, drugging – let’s call a spade a spade) children with allergy or cold medicines whenever it was convenient. But if the ethical concerns weren’t strong enough to make these people think twice, maybe the safety concerns will.
The sedation issue has brought about the long-overdue examination of certain cough and cold medicines for children THAT WERE NEVER ADEQUATELY TESTED in children. It’s a dirty little secret, but now pediatricians and health officials are finally bringing it to light.
Brand names that have become the standard treatment for children – drugs such as Toddler’s Dimetapp, Triaminic Infant, and Little Colds – were placed on the market before the FDA tightened its premarket testing standards. The main compound in Benadryl (diphenhydramine) is under inspection for the same reasons.
This will likely come as a shock to most parents. After all, the drug companies are allowed to market the cough medicines for children – even though no studies have been done showing that they’re safe OR effective!
As too many parents have already discovered, they’re neither.
Despite their claims of safety, common cough and cold medicines can have serious side effects and have been associated with adult diseases like arrhythmias, high blood pressure, and stroke. In fact, they cause serious health issues in thousands of children every year. The CDC found that in 2004 and 2005, over 1,500 children under 2 years old had to be taken to the hospital after taking a common cough and cold medicine. Three of them died.
And in Maryland alone (where the petition to review the safety and efficacy of cough and cold medicines originated), 900 children under 4 years old overdosed on these medications in 2004, and in the last five years such drugs have been linked to four deaths.
Manufacturers claim that the drugs are safe when they’re used on the proper age group (6 years old and up) and with the proper dosage. But do they even know what constitutes proper dosage? According to Dr. Charles Gangley, the director of the FDA’s office of nonprescription drug products, most dosages listed on these labels are no more than EDUCATED GUESSES. He said, “We have no data on these agents of what’s a safe and effective dose in children.”
My advice: We’re talking about children here, infants and toddlers. So first things first: Let’s worry about SAFETY first and get to effective from there.
