No Medicine is Good Medicine

The major drug companies announced yesterday that they would go along with medical recommendations and not sell over-the-counter cold medications to children under the age of 4. (The pediatricians had recommended age 6 as the lower age.) The reason is simple: they don't work for children under 4 (or 6.) Nada. Zip. Zilch. Useless.

When I read that I remembered a story on the local news when the pediatricians had made their original recommendations. They were doing one of those stand-up stories in the cough and cold aisle of a local pharmacy. They were talking to mothers of children under the age of 6 and getting their reactions. One in particular struck me.

Her answer was quite straightforward. "What am I going to give him now to relieve his cold?"

It was not, "What else is out there?" since she knew there was nothing else. It was the frustration of the doctors having taken away from her the one that she wanted to use- and supposedly worked- because the ads have told her it worked.

I wanted to yell at the screen, But it didn't work.

But I restrained myself.

By the way, you might never guess what works- unless you had a Jewish mother-

Yep- chicken soup.