According to recent safety reviews released by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) shelves full of cough and cold medications marketed for babies and toddlers should be avoided due to increasingly high bad feedback from doctors.

In effect with the review, pediatricians have released a number of rather old-fashioned such as include humidifiers, saline drops and, yes, hydrating fluids such as the classic chicken soup. For a child with more serious symptoms, such as a consistent, wheezing cough that persists for more than a few days, parents should consider seeing a physician

On October 18, the FDA plans to hold a public meeting of a group of outside advisers to examine the safety and effectiveness of over-the-counter cough and cold medicines for babies and young children, which are sold under a range of brands, including Wyeth's Robitussin, Novartis AG's Triaminic and Johnson & Johnson's Tylenol Plus Cold. On Friday, in advance of the meeting, the agency unveiled in-depth reviews of the issues, by its own experts and some other groups.

Though the FDA hasn't come to a final conclusion about how to deal with the drugs, a number of the reviews echoed alarm bells that doctors had earlier raised. Agency safety reviewers wrote that an analysis suggested that the use of some of the medications has been associated with serious side effects and some deaths in patients younger than 6 years old. They also noted that the drugs haven't been proven to work in children.

The FDA said Friday it had 54 reports of deaths in children linked to decongestants containing the ingredients pseudoephedrine, phenylephrine and ephedrine from 1969 to Sept. 13, 2006, and 69 reports of deaths linked to antihistamines with the ingredients diphenhydramine, brompheniramine and chlorpheniramine. The agency said the bulk of the reports were in children younger than 2. Also, a number of the deaths occurred in children who had gotten overdoses.

 However, doctors say, some drugs are appropriate for kids with cold-like symptoms. Ian Paul, an associate professor of pediatrics and public health sciences at the Penn State College of Medicine who has done research on pediatric use of the cough medications and is now consulting for some of the products' makers, says he doesn't advise their use for colds. But "antihistamines work well for allergies," he says, and he will use them in kids for that. For pain, children's or infants' versions of acetaminophen, or Tylenol, are also acceptable for young kids, he says.

Other doctors suggest that the real issue to pay attention to is misuse and that the medications can be helpful when used properly. Jonathan Field, director of the Pediatric Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Clinic at New York University Medical Center/Bellevue Hospital, says he suggests that parents check with a pediatrician.