Millions Get High on Cold Drugs

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• Cold Meds Land 7,000 Kids a Year in the Hospital

  Jan 29, 08 4:43 AM CST
  More than 7,000 American children a year end up in emergency rooms after taking over-the-counter cold or cough medicines, the federal Centers for Disease Control reports. Most of the children take overdoses of the drugs on their own, but a quarter have bad reactions to normal doses given by their parents, according to the study of kids under 12 published in Pediatrics. More »

• Honey Works on Kids' Coughs

  Dec 4, 07 7:07 AM CST
  Parents looking for an alternative to cold medicines for their young kids might consider a sweet solution—honey. A new study suggests that a commonly available dark variety soothes children's coughs and helps them sleep better, the Houston Chronicle reports.  The study comes in the wake of the FDA's recommendation last month that children under 6 not be given over-the-counter cough and cold medicines. More »

• Toxic Cough Syrup Causes Deaths in Panama

  May 6, 07 8:00 AM CDT
  American drugmakers are on the lookout this week for another in the growing list of potentially deadly Chinese exports. This time, it's diethylene glycol, a sweet-but-toxic chemical that masquerades as glycerin in common medications like cough syrup and that has already killed almost 400 people—many of them children—in Panama.  More »