Safe New Medicines

Drug safety is always a top concern on the minds of consumers. Many medications often come with a list of side effects, some of which are bearable, some of which are not. Also, warnings about a drug’s safety can sometimes emerge long after that medicine has been on the market.

One example is the Food and Drug Administration’s public health advisory in 2007 about over-the-counter cough and cold medicines for children. A panel convened by the FDA recommended that the agency not allow drugs containing antihistamines, decongestants and cough suppressants to be used for infants and children younger than 2 years old. Human error leading to overdosing was a major concern, citing confusion with directions or accidentally giving the same ingredient when administering multiple products.

As the agency continues to review the safety of these drugs in children ages 2 through 11, manufacturers voluntarily relabeled the cold and cough medications in question instruction parents not to used them in children under 4 years of age.

Warnings such as this one aren’t taken lightly and often encourage consumers to be even more vigilant about which medicines they take. This increased vigilance drives consumers to do more research about safe new medicines.

A Homeopathic Solution

As we said above, the FDA is concerned about accidental misuse of these types of medications, leading to dangerous side effects in children. Homeopathic medicines, however, don’t contain any of the ingredients under question for use in small children.

These medicines also don’t interact with other medication.

Here’s another safety benefit of homeopathic medicines: They do not mask symptoms. As a result, doctors and patients can easily detect and respond to symptoms of serious illnesses if they are present.

Finally, a crucial safety advantage is that there’s no risk of overdose with homeopathic medicines.

All of these benefits make homeopathic medicines one of the safest choices for self-treatment.

Safe, Effective Children’s Medicines

Earlier in this post we mentioned the FDA’s advisory about children’s cough and cold medicines. The concern about these drugs leaves many parents wondering how to ease their children’s cold-related ailments, especially with the winter cold season upon us.

Boiron has created Children’s Oscillococcinum for flu-like symptoms and Children’s Coldcalm Pellets for colds. Parents will be able to more easily find these safe and reliable over-the-counter medicines in the children’s aisle along with Boiron’s established Children’s Chestal for coughs.

These homeopathic flu, cold and cough medicines do not contain any of the ingredients under question for use in children. Their active ingredients are micro-doses of natural ingredients.

Making It Easy for Parents

All of Boiron’s products are regulated as drugs by the FDA¹ and are clearly labeled for specific indications, making directions easy for parents to understand.

Not only that, parents can quickly and affordably pick up these over-the-counter medicines without a prescription in the children’s aisle or in the cough, cold and flu section of health food stores and independent pharmacies nationwide.

^{1.U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Sec 400.400 Conditions Under Which Homeopathic Drugs May be Marketed (CPG7132.15). Available at: www.fda.gov/ora/compliance_ref/cpg/cpgdrg/cpg400-400.html.}