A Parent's Guide To Medicine Safety

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A Parent’s Guide to Medicine Safety
As parents, we never want to see our children sick. It’s often painful for us to see our children in discomfort and it’s also difficult to comfort them when they don’t understand why they’re sick. Sickness leads to bad moods and cranky kids, which in turn leave parents frustrated and often the whole family gets stressed out when sickness invades the home.
Our first response is usually to find a medicine that will cure the illness. But along with curing whatever ails your child, there are certain dangers associated with medicines, both prescription and over the counter (OTC). This guide will help you decide if medicine is even a necessary treatment, safety tips to ensure your child gets the correct dosage, natural remedies, tips for when to seek medical attention, and questions you need to ask your pediatrician.
Cold Symptoms: Does Your Child Need Medicine?
What do you do when your child comes home from school sniffling? Or has a nagging cough? Or has a slight fever? Do you run right to the store to get some cough and cold medicine?
Many OTC medicines treat the symptoms only, rather than the illness itself, so you should determine just how uncomfortable your child is before doling out the medicine. Medicines are most effective against severe symptoms rather than minor symptoms. A slight case of the sniffles doesn’t require medicine but severe congestion can benefit from a decongestant. Use simple common sense or call your pediatrician to determine the severity of your child’s symptoms.
Also take your child’s age into consideration when determining if she needs medicine. Infant OTC medicines have been deemed unreliable for treating symptoms. Children under the age of 2 risk the possibility of severe, life-threatening side effects from some OTC medicines and the FDA is currently reviewing the guidelines for toddlers.
Considering that these medicines are all man-made and full of chemicals, do we really want our children ingesting medicines that might cause them harm, especially if they don’t really need it? If there’s any question about the effectiveness, why risk the possible side-effects?
Treating Fever and Pain
Children present with fevers when their bodies are starting to fight off some sort of infection or illness. Fever is the body’s natural way of trying to heal itself or ridding itself of the invading germs. But many parents panic and run to get aspirin or some other fever reducer.