( Health.com ) -- The number of infants and toddlers under age 2 who landed in emergency rooms after ingesting too much over-the-counter cold medicine dropped by more than half following the discontinuation of medicines targeted to that age group , a new study has found . In 2007 , drug manufacturers voluntarily pulled infant cough-and-cold medicines from store shelves amid concerns about the products ' effectiveness and side effects , including a risk of rapid heart rate , convulsions , loss of consciousness , and even death . At the time , experts worried that parents would start dosing their toddlers with other , stronger medications , which would potentially cause even worse problems . Health.com : 9 ways to stay sniffle-free . `` There was some controversy , '' says Daniel Budnitz , M.D. , a medical officer in the Medication Safety Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , in Atlanta , Georgia . `` Some folks suggested that it would be a bad thing because parents would use adult-strength formulas for infants and not know how to dose them . '' But that does n't seem to have happened . The new study , which was co-authored by Budnitz and appears in the journal Pediatrics , found that cold medicine-related ER visits by children under the age of 2 dropped by 55 percent in the 14-month period after the product withdrawal , compared with the 14 months immediately before . Using data collected from a representative sample of 63 hospitals across the U.S. , the researchers estimated that there were about 2,800 ER visits before the product withdrawal and about 1,250 after . Health.com : How to sick-proof your winter . And there did not appear to be any uptick in problems related to other medications , such as antibiotics , that parents might have been giving their children instead of cough-and-cold medicine . Both before and after the product withdrawal , the vast majority of ER visits resulted from overdoses . More than half of the children under age 2 who landed in the ER had found and ingested the medicines on their own . The remaining visits were caused by caregiver errors -- such as a parent mixing up two siblings ' medicines or confusing the abbreviations for teaspoon and tablespoon , for instance . ( Many of the discontinued products were liquids . ) Although Budnitz and his co-authors ca n't say with absolute certainty that the sharp drop in ER visits was caused by the product withdrawal , it does seem likely . The overall number of ER visits among kids under 12 remained the same in the pre- and post-withdrawal periods , which suggests that the decline was limited to infants and toddlers . Health.com : 5 most common myths about the common cold . Even after the 2007 withdrawal , doctors and public-health officials have continued to question the use of cough-and-cold medicines in young children . Aside from the safety risk , research has consistently shown that pediatric products are largely ineffective at relieving symptoms . In response to the safety concerns , medicine manufacturers have taken steps to standardize their dosing devices . And in 2008 , after conferring with the Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) , they voluntarily changed their product labels to say the medicines should not be used in children under age 4 . The study findings support that change , says Budnitz . Neil Herendeen , M.D. , a pediatrician at the University of Rochester Medical Center , in New York , says the study provides a compelling reason to withdraw all pediatric cough-and-cold medicines for kids under 12 from the market , a policy he supports . `` This shows that if you take it off the market , it will reduce the adverse events , '' Herendeen says . Health.com : Top 7 natural cold remedies : do they work ? Difficult as it is for parents to stand by and do nothing while their infants suffer with runny noses and hacking coughs , there really is n't any way to make a cold go away , only to ease some of the symptoms , experts say . `` You 're left with doing all the things your grandmother used to tell you : lots of fluids ; vaporizers , but do n't put any menthol medications in it , just plain water ; blow your nose ; and salt water drops , '' Dr. Herendeen says . Jeff Sleeth , M.D. , an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison , says that it 's important to keep a sick infant 's environment as well humidified as possible . That `` allows the mucous and secretions that are in the nose and back of the throat to stay nice and thin so , [ so ] when the child does cough , it 's easier to clear the secretions out , '' Sleeth says . Copyright Health Magazine 2010 .
In 2007 , drug manufacturers voluntarily pulled infant cough-and-cold medicines from stores . Many of the children under 2 who came to the ER had ingested the meds on their own . The FDA has been trying for years to get them back in stock