The Happy Homemaker

I heard about the infant medicine ban but did not think much of it. My kids were not sick at the time and I was too busy packing and getting ready to move.

Now my 5 year old and my 14 month old have pretty bad colds. My 5 year old daughter is coughing and my 14 month old son who is almost 30 pounds has a runny nose. My son looks miserable and has trouble sleeping at night.

Fearing that they would develop infections if I didn’t get that crud out of their system, I went to my local pharmacy to get them some infant cold medicine. That is when I realized that there were no infant formulas on the shelves and the children’s formulas were for kids over 6 years old. The pharmacist reminded me of the infant cold medicine ban. Suddenly, I wished I paid more attention to the news.

I never liked giving my kids medicine before 12 months old. My baby son had RSV and I had to spend most of the night with the hot shower on. I broke a doctor recommended rule and laid in the bed all night with my son in my arms. I had to suck out the mucus every couple of hours out of his nose so he could breathe. There were times I really wished I could give him some medicine to clear him up.

I was against giving infants medicine because when I gave my daughter cold medicine when she was a few months old, the side effects were worse than the illness. The medicine made her hyper. When they reach a certain weight I do give them Robitussin for coughs. Robitussin always works well for me. When my 3 year old son was 10 months old, my daughter poured a small bottle of Robitussin down my son’s throat. I immediately called the Poison Control Center and was told that other than being very sleepy, even if he did indeed swallow the entire bottle (it was a sample bottle not the big bottle) it would not be toxic and the in infant formulas have very little medicine in them anyways.  Before anyone judges, we had just moved and  I was unpacking boxes. My medicines are always stored up high where no kids can reach them.

I always am very careful and even give less of the recommended dose. I hate medicine so I hate giving my kids medicine. I give it to them because I am afraid they will get an infection or pneumonia. If the doctors can tell me that there are no dangers to NOT taking over the counter medicien then I will feel better. I guess we have become so stupid that we can’t be trusted to give our children medicine.