Infant Cold Medicine

Hi folks ... have any of you given infant cold/cough medicine (like the Tylenol brand) to your child before the age of 2?? With or without the doctor's consent?? My doctor seems pretty opposed to using the stuff before 2 years old (although she didn't say why), and I was just wondering if this "ruling" is the norm. Whether it is or isn't, do any of you ever give the stuff to your infants? My son has a terrible cough/cold and has been taking nebulizer meds (see my "nebulizer" post) with no relief. I am seriously considering giving him like a 1/2 dose of the infant tylenol cold/cough meds at night so that he can sleep a little. He is probably coughing a 100 times per hour throughout the night and has so much snot coming out of his nose that I am almost worried about him drowning in it!! I don't want to be irresponsible, but at the same time it kills me not be able ease his misery. Any thoughts??? And can someone link this post to the 1-5 year thread since my guys are almost one? Thanks!

 

Hi folks ... have any of you given infant cold/cough medicine (like the Tylenol brand) to your child before the age of 2?? With or without the doctor's consent?? My doctor seems pretty opposed to using the stuff before 2 years old (although she didn't say why), and I was just wondering if this "ruling" is the norm. Whether it is or isn't, do any of you ever give the stuff to your infants? My son has a terrible cough/cold and has been taking nebulizer meds (see my "nebulizer" post) with no relief. I am seriously considering giving him like a 1/2 dose of the infant tylenol cold/cough meds at night so that he can sleep a little. He is probably coughing a 100 times per hour throughout the night and has so much snot coming out of his nose that I am almost worried about him drowning in it!! I don't want to be irresponsible, but at the same time it kills me not be able ease his misery. Any thoughts??? And can someone link this post to the 1-5 year thread since my guys are almost one? Thanks!

 

We used pediacare per the pedi's office. They said to only use it if they were coughing a lot and it was keeping them awake. Generally, I don't think they like you to use it. I know the brand of pediacare we used is no longer available, but it was the only one my dd could have because she was small and theothers required that they weigh 18#'s for a dosage. they were 6 months when we gave it to them.

 

I have the same problem. My twins boys are sick too. Their peditrician was the same way about meds till I took them yesterday. She told me to give them 2.5 ml of Robitussin DM. She also gave me Dimetapp Cold and Allergy to give them for snot. And lastly she said that if the coughing is keeping them up at night that occasionally I could give them 2 ml of Children's Nyquil. It is helping so much. They are both 21 lbs. Good luck and if you have anymore ?'s just ask!

 

With my oldest dd I had/have best results with Benadryl (I gave it to her for the first time when she was 3 months old, 1/4 teaspoon) and Tylenol Cold infant drops. I like the Benadryl because it doesn't have any fever reduction in it, and usually it's just the cold.

 

my pedi is the same way, and i did not have to deal with it at all with my first DD. with my twins, though, who currently have RSV, along with their sister and their father and their grandmother....they are coughing and dripping like crazy. the first time, i was told it was just a baby cold, no meds necessary. the second time, it was rsv, and he did not like their cough, which was mostly caused by all the post nasal dripping. anyway, he recommended benedryl and delsum for my three year old...worked wonders! he said that benedryl should not be given to under 6mth olds, so he said infant dimetapp, which he gave me some samples. i gave it to them three nights, then i quit cause each night, one of them was awake for most of the night! it has pseudofed in it. so, being that my twins were only 6 days shy of being 6mths old, i gave them benedryl instead, and it really helped.
seeing that your twins are almost a year old, i would go with the benedryl. if their lungs are clear, than their cough is most likely caused by the post nasal drip, and if you can dry that up with benedryl, than it should be helped a lot. when you give meds, go by the weights, not the age. benedryl is so benign...some kids have to take it every day for allergies...so i would start here rather than with those cough and cold meds. if you look on the back of the childrens benedryl, it will have the dosage. i think starting at 24lbs, you give 1tsp, otherwise, 0.5tsp. I gave my twins just over 0.25tsp, and it helped a lot. with my 3yr old, i try to let her just tough it out, but this RSV has really been hard on everyone.

 

It sounds like all our kids have the same nasty thing. Jilly has been in the ER twice this week for severe wheezing and an unrelenting cough. She coughed for 6 hours straight on Tuesday. She is on the Nebulizer and did a 5 day steroid course. Annalise doesn't wheeze so far. I took them both this week to the Ped because they were so uncomfortable. He said absolutely not to any OTC meds. He said there is no proof they work and they sometimes make things worse because they stimulate them which causes them not to sleep soundly which in turn makes the cough worse. Who knows. I've decided to follow their advice - I'm not a Dr and they see a ton of kids. We are using the Neb at night if necessary and using Motrin when they get really fussy. I think we're finall over the hump a bit. Still tons of snot and coughing but the wheezing is better.

I know how you're all feeling right now. Hope all your little ones get better soon and we all get some sleep.

From the Neb post - if you put a pillow or blanket over the machine, it will quiet the sound so you won't wake them up. It needs a little air but you can cover most of it.

 

Both babies now have a cold. My pedi does not like the use of cough suppressants unless it is absolutley needed for night sleep since the cough serves a purpose. They did say that we could use Benadryl only as needed for the clear snot that is running out constantly.

We also run a cool mist humidifier during naps/night.
The blue bulb syringe for their nose works well, especially prior to feeding.

 

Thanks so much everyone. I'm sorry that we all have to deal with this! I just got back from another trip to the doc with my son (we were there on Thursday for the first visit). She said that his lungs actually sound better but that his breathing & cough still sound pretty bad. She said that I could give him 1/4 tsp of benedryll tonight - once & that's it. And we'll continue the steriods for an additional 2 nights (we were originally told to do it for 3 nights). So hopefully things we will all sleep a little better tonight. Thanks again for the input ... and I hope that all of us get through this RSV nightmare soon!