Children's Benadryl for cold??

[Ashley&Scott]

DH took M to the pedi this morning for a pre-surgery physical.

M has a cold/cough & has been waking with coughing fits in the middle of the night. The pedi said we could do 1/2 tsp of Children's Benadryl before bed to help him sleep.

The pedi said he doesn't normally recommend this before 1yr but since M is almost 11 mo & 23 lb he said it would be fine.

Has anyone heard of this? I thought you couldn't give babies anything for a cold/cough?

[karinothing]

DH was just asking about this this morning (DS also has a bad cough). So the reason they banned infant's cold medicine was because people mis dosing their children, which was obviously bad. I am not sure if Benadryl has the same issues those other meds did, we have given DS benadryl before due to allergies and it was fine in that case. But yes, I have heard of this before.

I just picked up some all natural cough syrup (essentially honey and vitamin C) but obviously that won't work for M.

[mrssandro]

Ours was okay with this for us as well. Actually she recommended children's mucinex. DD is a big kid though always over 95%.

[Ashley&Scott]

We're leaning towards not giving it. These are the things that bother me:

-Pedi's partner just told us last Saturday that the only things we do were saline, suction, sleeping upright/inclined & sitting in a steamy room.

-Benadryl's website says:
children under 2 years do not use
children 2 to 5 years do not use unless directed by a doctor
children 6 to 11 years 5 mL (1 tsp) to 10 mL (2 tsp)

[karinothing]

Yeah, the bottle says not to use on infants. I probably would learn towards not using it as well. We only use it in allergic reaction situations. I can't remember how much we gave him though (the doctor told us< I just forget)

[h]

Our pedi was fine with it as well. We used it very occassionally from a year on when they had colds that were interferring with sleep. All my friends who are doctors seem to give their babies Benedryl for colds pretty frequently. I think it would be fine as long as you are careful about dosing, but I wouldn't bother with it unless you feel like your son is really miserable even with saline, Tylenol, steam, etc.

[mrssandro]

You got to do what your comfortable with. DD had a ton of issues with allergies and getting ear infections when she was about that age. So I used children's Zrytec at very low dose based on recommendations from the pedi. The ear infections finally stopped happening.

I used a humidifier, baby Vapor rub, menthol baby baths and saline drops as well.

[Redpoppy]

We used it to help dry up the mucus. Not at under a year but definitely his second winter at 16+ months.

[Deleted]

We have used benedryl to try to dry up a cough/runny nose in DS with the pedi's assurance it was fine. I believe we started around 18 months.

Your pediatrician ok'd it. They are the experts.

Also, the whole "no cough medicine" is because cough medicines usually have many active ingredients and parents were stupid and not reading labels and mis dosing kids.

Benedryl has one active ingredient.

[DarcyLongfellow]

We did Children's Claritin starting around a year for allergies.

We did benadryl starting around 15 months for a severe allergic reaction.

[lindyanne]

Everything says dont use under two. We used it at some point in that dosage. I think DS may have been a little older but same size or smaller.

[crazygame]

We used it for colds before she turned two. It definitely helped her with sleep better. We give her a very small amount.

We also used it when she had an allergic reaction to her antibiotics.

[anna7602]

Our pedi didn't give us the green light to use Mucinex for a cold until our most recent visit, at age 4.5. DD has had colds before and the pedi had previously told us just to use a humidifier and natural remedies.

I couldn't convince DD to take the Mucinex in the end anyway.

I don't think I would have been comfortable giving her anything at 11 months.