what they said (Hover the mouse cursor over underlined words for more info)

Concern over the safety of children's cough and cold medicines has recently reached a fevered pitch.
An expert panel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has called for a complete ban on all over-the-counter remedies aimed at children under the age of 6.
And many leading doctors agree that if used incorrectly, the cough syrups have the potential to do serious harm...

The original article can be found at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20071207.LDOSES07/TPStory/TPEntertainment/?query=

how did it rate? (more information)

what we said (Hover the mouse cursor over underlined words for more info)

While this is a short story about the benefits of using honey in treating night time coughs, the news hook is the recent ban proposed by the US FDA on cough and cold remedies for children under six,
It appears that the use of honey was studied in comparison to either placebo or dextromethorphan the active ingredient in many cough remedies. While the honey seemed to be "significantly better" than the comparative treatments we don't really find out what that means or what measures were used to show its benefit.

It was good to see some detailed information about who should not be taking honey (small children) and the suggested dosage sizes but we are left with some unanswered questions, including the potential conflicts of interest: did the honey manufacturers fund the study?

public forum

voice your opinion in the forum

• All comments and feedback submitted to Media Doctor are subject to editorial approval before being made viewable by the public. It may take up to a week for your comments to be approved. Additionally, no response will be given to questions posed in public comments. Media Doctor does not provide medical advice, or answers to medical questions posed by the public.
• If you provide your email address it will not be displayed to the general public.
• Comments may be edited by Media Doctor to remove defamatory or sensitive statements, and brand names.
• Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*).