Avoid cold remedies for kids
Treatment for under six set: Rest, lots of clear, unsweetened fluids
Some parents with a snuffly, coughing toddler at home will make a trip to the cough-and-cold aisle at their favourite drugstore. Yet Health Canada is once again warning caregivers not to give any over-thecounter cold medication to children under six.
While the makers of name brand cough syrups and decongestants produce a host of children’s formulations — typically with a fruity flavour added — Health Canada says they are aren’t particularly effective in children under six. Following the advice of a scientific research panel in 2008, it has said the potential for harm, although low, outweighs the small chance of benefit.
London Drugs pharmacist Gianni Del Negro says parents of young children have been looking for alternatives since Health Canada changed its policy and there is very little to offer. He often recommends non-drug methods like nasal rinses and aspirations for tiny, plugged noses.
Meanwhile, homeopathic remedies have popped up on drugstore shelves next to the Children’s Tylenol and Advil Junior, promoting their “natural ingredients” in contrast to mainstream medications.
So what do parents and caregivers need to know?
CHILDREN’S MEDICINE
First, says Health Canada, don’t give adult medicines to kids. Second, don’t give kids older than six more than one over-the-counter cold remedy at once since that could create a negative drug interaction.
When it comes to children under six, research has found little evidence medicines with antihistamines and cough suppressants are effective on small children and they come with long-shot risks.
“The rare but serious potential side-effects include convulsions, increased heart rate, decreased level of consciousness, abnormal heart rhythms and hallucinations,” Health Canada concluded.
The problem is that many preschoolers regularly have a runny nose or cough — far more often than adults — so treating them each time with a cold medication would expose them to more of the active ingredients. Children’s weights also vary dramatically, so choosing a dose by age, for instance, could give a tiny child far too much.
HOMEOPATHIC REMEDIES
Federal regulations changed last summer for these mixtures, and their manufacturers have until June to stop marketing them to children under 12 unless they can prove they work. That will put them on a similar footing as mainstream medications, says Stephen Hoption Cann, a clinical associate professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Population and Public Health.
“The evidence that’s out there is not very compelling,” says Hoption Cann of homeopathy’s effectiveness.
Since the notion behind homoeopathy is that the active ingredients are so diluted they are undetectable, parents usually don’t have to worry that they are dangerous, he says. Instead, the risk is that they might administer an ineffective concoction instead of seeking conventional medical help when a child is gravely ill.
“The message is not to use it for serious conditions that conventional therapies may be able to help.”
THE STATISTICS
Research published earlier this month in the Canadian Journal of Public Health found that parents haven’t changed their behaviour much since the recommendation.
The study looked at 3,500 children from 2008 to 2011 and found use of over-the-counter cold treatments dropped only about four percentage points — from 22 per cent to 18 per cent.
“It went down a very little bit, saying to us that even having a label on the bottle is probably not enough to deter its use,” said principal investigator Dr. Jonathon Maguire, a pediatrician and researcher at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.
“And I think parents just don’t know that they’re not supposed to be used in little kids.”
THE SAFEST TREATMENT
Health Canada has gone back to the future with this advice: Rest and lots of clear, unsweetened liquids.