anyone give cough/stuffy nose meds at 6ish months for bad cold?

athomas2424

LO is approaching that 6 month mark and it appears he is coming down with another cold.  The first one he got was 4 months and we couldnt give him anything medicine wise, we just did the basics (suck the nose, saline, humidifier, incline head, etc).

He was sooo miserable and unable to breathe and sleep and if this cold gets as bad, I imagine it will happen again.  Just wondering if anyone gave a little over the counter cold medicine at 6 months since I hear at that age it is safe to give it to them.  Looks like LO is going to have a nasty cough with this one as well so I am wondering if he can have infant cough meds over the counter as well.

NicoleWI

I didn't think anything was safe for them until age 2?

mrsmcdonald

There are no safe cold medicines for a 6 month old. You can just do the things that you did before - saline, humidifier, etc. If you were thinking of giving him something, I would clear it with your pediatrician first.

athomas2424

I must have had the cold meds mixed up with tylenol/ibuprofen I guess.  dang it...I thought I had read on here that someones pedi gave them the ok around that age, but better safe than sorry.  thanks ladies!

newenglander71

2013mommy:

NicoleWI:

I didn't think anything was safe for them until age 2?

This. The only thing our pedi said was okay at the 6 month mark was ibuprofen.  

 Same.

dande2129

mrsmcdonald:

There are no safe cold medicines for a 6 month old. You can just do the things that you did before - saline, humidifier, etc. If you were thinking of giving him something, I would clear it with your pediatrician first.

This. Additionally, my DS's pedi said that absolutely no cough/cold OTC medications are to be given before the age of 4, even with the new standards of children's medicine as of late.

We only use Tylenol, and that is as a last resort. We have yet to use anything on LO, and probably won't unless it gets really bad. 

Kingston54

You can't give cough/cold medicine until they are 6 years old.  Best thing right now is to buy Little Noses saline spray and do that with the nasal aspirator or try a NoseFrida - those are awesome!

Rosebean

My Ped told me that it is way too easy to overdoes infants on cold medicine. In fact, most ER infant cold issues are due to over medication rather than just the cold itself. Stick to Tylenol. Or maybe do ibeprofin if you want something to help with swelling. Most cold meds are a form of pain killer and antihistamine anyways.