SIX cough and cold remedies for young children were removed from shop shelves yesterday, but parents were urged not to be alarmed.
The medicines, marketed at children under two, are being removed from open sale amid fears youngsters might suffer accidental overdoses. Meanwhile, labelling on dozens of other cough and cold remedies is being changed on new advice from drug-s
afety watchdogs.
But the Proprietary Association of Great Britain (PAGB), which represents the makers of the medicines, stressed that they were not being banned for use by older children and were safe when used as directed.
Sheila Kelly, the PAGB's executive director, said the action was taken after advice from the Commission on Human Medicines to remove the doses for children under two from the labels of many cold and cough remedies.
Labelling on products containing antihistamines, decongestants, cough suppressants and expectorants will now be changed over six months so that they are only recommended for children aged over two.
Parents are now being advised to give children aged under 24 months paracetamol or ibuprofen to lower their temperature if they have a cold. Simple cough syrups containing glycerol, honey and lemon can also be given, as well as vapour rubs and inhalant decongestants.
The Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said the affected products would be kept behind pharmacy counters and that anyone who asked to buy them would be questioned about the age of the sick child. If older than two, the product can be sold and an advice leaflet will be provided.
Sara Coakley, of the MHRA, said letters were sent to healthcare professionals yesterday explaining the move. "It's a precautionary measure," she said.
"If they (the medicines] had been dangerous, we'd have had them off the market in seconds. Nobody should panic. There's nothing wrong with these medicines; it was the way that they had been given."
She said the remedies could be dangerous if children received more than the recommended dose or were taking more than one product at a time. Miss Coakley conceded there had been an increase in "adverse reactions" to the products, but said it had been more widely seen in the United States, where improved packaging has now been introduced.
Professor Rosalind Smyth, chairwoman of an advisory group on paediatric medicines for the Commission on Human Medicines, said: "Coughs and colds are generally self-limiting conditions which will get better themselves, usually within a few days. The management of symptoms in the under-twos is best achieved with treatment to control fever, together with simple cough mixtures."
&149 The six products taken off open sale are: Asda Children's Chesty Cough Syrup; Boots Chesty Cough Syrup One Year Plus; Boots Sore Throat and Cough Linctus One Year Plus; Buttercup Infant Cough Syrup; CalCough Chesty and Bell's Children's Chesty Cough.
The full article contains 476 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
