Medicine warning!

News |

Cough and cold remedies for children under two are to be pulled from the shelves immediately amid fears of accidental overdose.

The Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has ordered the permanent removal of the drugs which are specifically aimed at toddlers under two.

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.

More remedies will be taken off the 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.

None of the remedies has been shown to be dangerous when used correctly.

The move follows a similar situation in the US.  Research by doctors there showed that plain honey was better than many expensive medicines.