The products have been permanently removed from sale on the orders of the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) as a precautionary measure. They include: Asda Children's Chesty Cough Syrup, Boots Chesty Cough Syrup 1 Year Plus, Boots Sore Throat and Cough Linctus 1 Year Plus, Buttercup Infant Cough Syrup, CalCough Chesty and Children's Chesty Cough.
Additional products are to be withdrawn until they are repackaged to include advice that they should not be given to children aged under two. They are intended to be on sale again by October along with a leaflet giving additional advice.
The MHRA has issued advice to parents and carers that a child suffering from a cold should be treated with paracetamol or ibuprofen to lower the child's temperature and to use a simple cough syrup (such as glycerol, honey or lemon) if they have a cough.
The over-the-counter products were reviewed by the Commission on Human Medicines, who took into account the findings of a similar review in the United States, which resulted in the Food and Drug Administration announcing that over-the-counter cough and cold preparations should no longer be used in children aged under two years.
