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Posted: 27 March 2008 at 1:06pm | IP Logged

Thought this might be worth reading!

Six cold and cough remedies for young children are being removed from shelves amid fears of accidental overdose.

The Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has ordered the permanent removal of the medicines, which are specifically marketed for use on under-twos.

Those affected are: Asda Children's Chesty Cough Syrup, Boots Chesty Cough Syrup One Year Plus, Boots Sore Throat and Cough Linctus One Year Plus, Buttercup Infant Cough Syrup, CalCough Chesty and Bell's Children's Chesty Cough.

And dozens more remedies will be taken off shelves until they can be repackaged to include advice that they should not be given to children under 24 months.

Until then, they will be kept behind pharmacy counters for potential purchasers, who will be questioned about the age of the child who is ill. If the child is older than two, the product can be sold and an advice leaflet will be provided.

MHRA spokeswoman Sara Coakley said letters have been sent to health care professionals explaining the move.

She said: "It's a precautionary measure. They are not dangerous. If they had been dangerous, we'd have had them off the market in seconds. Nobody should panic. There's nothing wrong with these medicines - it was the way that they had been given."

Ms Coakley said the remedies could be dangerous if people gave their child more than the recommended dose or gave them more than one product at the same time.

She added: "Children under two are particularly susceptible because of their small size so can be at risk of overdose. We are saying: don't give it to under-twos."

She admitted there had been an increase in "adverse reactions" to the products but said it had been more widely seen in the US, where improved packaging has now been introduced.