Dr. Rasheedat Ibraheem, a child health specialist, has encouraged parents who give their under-five children cough and cold drugs to cease doing so, warning that the medication may harm the children.
Cough drugs, according to the paediatrician, are not appropriate for treating cough in children under the age of five because they frequently have detrimental consequences in children.
Dr. Ibraheem, Consultant Paediatrician gave the encouragement at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital in Kwara State.
He stressed that under-five children cannot cough or spit out phlegm from the throat, adding that they should not be given cough medicines because they do not produce sputum when they cough. Sputum is the mucus that is coughed up from the lower airways.
According to the recommendation of the US Food and Drug Administration, children under the age of two should never be given over-the-counter cough or cold medications.
The FDA noted that many OTC cough and cold products contain multiple ingredients which can lead to accidental overdosing.
Speaking further, Dr. Ibraheem stated that cough is one of the protective reflex mechanisms of the body that is used to get rid of things in the airways.
She explained, “For children under five years of age when they cough, they cannot expel sputum. They do not have adequate force to expel sputum.
“Even if they cough and bring something up, most of the time the under-five children end up swallowing it because they cannot expectorate. They do not produce sputum.
“When a mother comes and tells me that ‘my child is three years old and she is bringing out sputum’, and I will tell her no, your child cannot bring out sputum.
“That is why no doctor can tell a mother to go and run a sputum test on a four-year-old child because he/she knows that the child does not produce sputum.”
The child care expert stated further that giving a child expectorant and suppressant cough syrups will not stop the cough, instead, it will weaken the child and worsen his health condition.
