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For regularly updated information on a variety of health topics, please visit familydoctor. See related article on treatment of the common cold. Most colds don't cause serious illness and will get better over time. Cold symptoms can be treated with certain over-the-counter medicines, but some of these should not be used in young children.
Always talk to your doctor or pharmacist before giving your child over-the-counter cold medicine. Over-the-counter pain medicines such as acetaminophen one brand: Children's Tylenol and ibuprofen one brand: Children's Motrin can help with fever and discomfort.
Refer to the package insert for dosing instructions. An herbal medicine called Pelargonium sidoides one brand: Umcka Coldcare may help with cough and can help your child breathe better through the nose. Menthol rub one brand: Vick's VapoRub helps with cough and can help your child breathe better through the nose. But it has a strong smell that some children don't like.
From fever to nasal congestion, body aches to sore throat, colds can come with several bothersome symptoms. Many reach for over-the-counter OTC medications to ease them—and some reach for more than one, especially if their cold symptoms are varied or severe. Some cold medications can be taken at the same time without issue, but other combinations can pose safety concerns.
Most multi-symptom cold and cough medications should not be combined with each other. If you need to take more than one medication at a time, always check the labels and be sure you aren't taking multiple medications with the same or similar active ingredients. If you are taking single symptom medications, in general, it is OK to take several medications as long as they do different things.
For example, taking a decongestant, expectorant, and pain reliever would be OK, but taking two decongestants would not. To help make it a little simpler, the following is a list of some of the most common OTC cold and flu medications that are available in the U. Review which ones can safely be combined and which ones you shouldn't mix. If you don't see the medications you want to take on the list, talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist to ensure it's safe to combine with others.
Possible active ingredients:. Alternating with ibuprofen is OK as long as you are not taking more acetaminophen than is recommended in a hour period or with each dose.
Many multi-symptom medications also contain acetaminophen and should not be taken with Tylenol or generic acetaminophen. Always read the ingredient label on the medications you are taking. Do not take more than one medication that contains the active ingredient acetaminophen. The U. Food and Drug Administration warns of the danger of accidentally overdosing on acetaminophen when taking multiple OTC cold and flu medications that contain it.
An overdose can cause irreparable liver damage and even lead to death. Alternating with acetaminophen is OK as long as you are not taking more than is recommended of each medication in a hour period or with each dose.
There are not as many multi-symptom medications that contain ibuprofen as compared to acetaminophen, but you should always review the labels anyway. Aspirin should not be combined with other pain relievers unless specifically instructed by a healthcare provider. Pepto-Bismol also contains a derivative of aspirin and should be used with caution if you are taking aspirin.
Medications containing aspirin and salicylates should never be given to a child or teen under age 19 unless specifically instructed by their healthcare provider. When taken during a viral illness, it can cause Reye's syndrome and harm the liver and brain.
Naproxen should not be combined with other pain relievers unless specifically directed by your healthcare provider. The active ingredient in Robitussin is dextromethorphan.
How do they get away with it? Airborne's products also now include a disclaimer:. It claims on the package to relieve cold symptoms. It contains chemicals that can be toxic. Interestingly, there have been a few experiments on this extract, some of which showed a small positive effect. However, a review of these studies reported that their quality was "very low," that all of them were conducted by Umcka itself, and that all of them were conducted in the same region of Russia.
And remember: homeopathic preparations are so dilute that they contain little, and sometimes none, of the active ingredient. But Americans take them in huge quantities to treat the common cold. My daughter knows this. But her friends were astonished to hear that we never take her to the doctor for a cold. It turns out that most of them had been to doctors many times for colds, often coming away with a prescription for antibiotics.
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