(AP) -- Cough and cold medicines send about 7,000 children to hospital emergency rooms each year, the government said in its first national estimate. About two-thirds of the cases were children who took the medicines unsupervised. But about one-quarter involved cases in which parents gave the proper dosage and an allergic reaction or some other problem developed, the study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. Less than two weeks ago, the Food and Drug Administration warned parents that over-the-counter cough and cold medicines were too dangerous for children younger than 2.
