Can’t Find Children’s Medicine? 4 Tips From a Pediatrician

If you’ve gone to the drugstore recently in search of cold or flu medicine for your sick child, you may have come up empty-handed.

Connecticut is experiencing a shortage of children’s medicine, with empty shelves reminiscient of the early days of the pandemic. And it’s not just Connecticut – it’s a nationwide problem attributed to the “tripledemic” – the simultaneous spread of the flu, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

Here’s a few things to keep in mind when treating your sick child, according to Sara Sahl, MD, a pediatrician at Hartford HealthCare Medical Group in Litchfield.

> Connect with a primary care provider

Adult medicine is usually not appropriate for kids.

Parents should not adjust adult cold medicine for their kids, advises Dr. Sahl, especially those that treat both cold and flu.

“Combination cold and flu medications contain unsafe amounts of medicine for children,” says Dr. Sahl. “They usually include fever reducers, which can lead to over-medicating your child.”

Read the remaining three tips on the Hartford HealthCare Health NewsHub.