There has been a sudden rise in the number of small children taken to the emergency room after they stop breathing or lose consciousness from consuming over-the-counter cold medications in their systems, two studies appearing in the August issue of Pediatrics say.
In January, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a health advisory recommending that OTC cough and cold preparations, including decongestants, expectorants, antihistamines, and cough suppressants, not be used to treat children under the age of 2 years. Dr. Raymond Pitetti, lead author of a study, said that the medicines can cause apnea (cessation of breathing) in young children.
The researchers arrived at the conclusion by performing comprehensive urine toxicology screens on 274 children under two years of age who arrived at the emergency room of a large children's hospital between 1997 and 2006. The results indicated that 13 children or 4.7 percent of the results were positive for an over-the-counter cold preparation.
The cold medications caused the life-threatening events, in which the babies turned red or blue, stopped breathing, passed out or went limp. About 7,000 children under age 11, including 1,500 under age 2, go to hospital emergency rooms each year after taking cold and cough medicines, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
