From HealthDay News:

A significant percentage of small children going to emergency rooms with an "apparent life-threatening event" had ingested over-the-counter cold and cough medicines, researchers report, despite recent U.S. recommendations that these products not be used in children under 2.

Such medicines can cause apnea (cessation of breathing) in young children, noted Dr. Raymond Pitetti, lead author of a study published in the August issue of Pediatrics and associate medical director of the emergency department at Children's Hospital, Pittsburgh.

In January, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a health advisory recommending that over-the-counter (OTC) cough and cold preparations not be used to treat children under the age of 2 due to the possibility of life-threatening complications. Such products include decongestants, expectorants, antihistamines, and cough suppressants.

And earlier this year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that some 7,000 American children under the age of 11 are treated each year in hospital emergency rooms because of problems with cough and cold medications. Most of the cases were due to "unsupervised ingestion," the authors stated.

Pitetti recommended that comprehensive toxicology screens become part of routine evaluations for children presenting with apparent life-threatening events (ALTEs) at emergency rooms.

But while such drug screens could be "helpful," said Dr. G. Randall Bond, medical director of the Cincinnati Drug and Poison Information Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. "There are too many unknowns [in this study] to make conclusions about the relationship [between cough and cold medicine and ALTEs]."