Over-The-Counter Medicine Ban for Children

Facts about children:

• They are dirty

• They like to stick things in their mouths

• They are little sacks of germs that get colds all the time, and pass them amongst each other because they are dirty and like to stick things in their mouths

Facts about colds:

• Most colds clear up on their own after a few days

• The best remedy for a cold is rest and fluids

Facts about over-the-counter cold medications for children:

• They were approved by the FDA only 30 years ago without any separate studies done to prove their safety or efficacy in children

• To date, there are still no studies that show the medications to be effective, even though there have been some research into the serious side effects (such as death in some cases)

• Thousands of children are sent to the emergency room every year from the administration of these drugs

• There is very little known about what the potential unknown side effects of these drugs are

• Despite the urgings of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Food and Drug Administration officials to remove these OTC cold remedies from the market, they are still being manufactured and sold across the country

• Families in the US spend over $286 million a year on these cough and cold medications for kids, of which there are over 800 different kinds on the market... That's a big market!