Parents warned over giving cough medicine to babies

PARENTS should not give their sniffling babies cough and cold medicines without appropriate advice from a doctor or pharmacist, the State’s drug body warned last night.

The Irish Medicines Board was responding to a public health warning from the US Food and Drug Administration that parents should not give over-the-counter cough and cold medicines to children under the age of two.

The FDA warning, issued yesterday, is in response to concern that the medicines can cause serious and potentially life-threatening side effects.