Parents give Kids useless, risky drugs
By Tim Friend
USA TODAY 10/5/94

Parents often give over-the-counter drugs to preschool children to treat colds, despite the potential for harm and little proof that the drugs are effective.

A survey of 8,145 mothers of 3-year olds found 53.7% of the kids had been given an OTC drug in the previous 30 days, mostly cold medicine and Tylenol, says Michael Kogan of the National Center for Health Statistics. In today's Journal of the American Medical Association:

70% of children with a recent illness got OTC drugs
Half of kids had been given two types of drugs
White, married, educated mothers with good incomes were most likely to give drugs

FDA's Dr. Michael Weintraub says side effects are generally not serious, but there is potential for adverse reactions and over sedation.

Parents feel the need to do something for a sick child and in the process "become easy prey to......promotion by drug companies'" says Dr. Anne Gadomski of the University of Maryland, in an editorial in the same issue.

From 1985-89, 670,000 reports were made to poison control centers involving over-the-counter drugs and children under age 6

The truth, she says, is preschool kids experience 4 to 8 upper respiratory tract infections a year that are caused by viruses, and there is no cure for these infections. They commonly go away by themselves in 5 to 7 days.