During a public hearing held Thursday, pediatricians have urged the Food and Drug Administration to recall over-the-counter (OTC) cold medicines for young children.

Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, Baltimore's health commissioner, stated that presently, there was little proof that OTC cough and cold medicine for children under the age of 6 should be further used as treatment.

Although the mainstay for getting rid of a cold consists of bed rest and plenty liquid intake, doctors advising parents to wait for their children’s coughs and colds to clear up on their own without giving them any medicine, the Nielsen Company market research firm informed that more than $286 million went annually on OTC remedies for the aforementioned conditions in the United States. Moreover, Boston University revealed in a report that approximately 10% of the children were given the medications, the most exposed being children between the ages 2 and 5.

This year, federal health officials have issued a warning concerning OTC medicine given to younger than 2 years old children, leaving yet to be decided whether the warning should be expanded to those up to the age of 11.

The FDA is expected to make a decision after they gather more data from both doctors and consumers.

The drug industry informed that OTC cough and cold medicine was safe to be used for children older than 2. Nevertheless, research is being currently done on some of the most common ingredients in the medication.

Each year, an estimated number of 7,000 children present to emergency rooms with clinical conditions including hives and drowsiness, which unintentional overdosage of the cough and cold medicine have given rise to.