Cold medicine removal from stores leads to fewer drug reactions, ER visits for kids

? Removing cough and cold medicines for very young children from store shelves led to a big decline in emergency room visits for bad reactions to the drugs, government research found.

But the results released today are a mixed bag: Some parents were still giving their infants and toddlers these medicines, and many ER cases still involved youngsters who apparently got hold of the medications themselves.

That suggests parents who stopped using them hadn’t discarded old bottles or kept them out of reach after manufacturers voluntarily withdrew medicines labeled for infants and kids up to age 2 in 2007.

The bottom-line message: “Keep all medicines up and away and out of sight,” said Dr. Daniel Budnitz, the study’s senior author and a researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Budnitz said the results also indicate the need for better childproof containers.

The study appears in the journal Pediatrics.

Makers of over-the-counter cough and cold medicines voluntarily withdrew the products, mostly syrups, in October 2007. Pediatricians had complained that the products don’t work in young kids and posed a safety risk because of accidental overdoses causing extreme drowsiness, increased heart rate and even some deaths.

The Food and Drug Administration in 2008 warned against using the medicines in children younger than 2; labels now advise against using them in children younger than 4, Budnitz noted.