Vicks VapoRub may put infants at risk, study finds

Oh, for goodness' sake........is nothing safe anymore?

How many generations of kids grew up smelling Vapo-Rub or Mentholatum as Mom smeared the thick goop on our rattly chests? It may not have done us any good, but it sure felt soothing at the time, and surely the TLC that came with it didn't hurt anything. I can hardly bear to think that something so comforting as a chest rub at bedtime, followed by a warm blanket and a good-night kiss, could make things worse.

On the other hand, I'm old enough to remember a children's cold product called Pertussin, a mediciney-smelling aerosol that Mother would spray in my room whenever I had the sniffles. It was found later to contribute to coughs and asthma, and was even implicated in some cases of SIDS; it ended up being withdrawn from the market sometime in the late '60s or early '70s. So I guess one just never knows..........still, I'd hate to see these ointments become a thing of the past. I've got a cold right now, and I STILL use Mentholatum to soothe my sore nose and tight chest.

...I have to wonder if the ingredients and strengths have changed since when my mom used it on the four of us in the 1950s.

I know that they make one especially for babies now; dd uses it for dgs when he has a cold. I still use vicks when i am sick...all 5 of us survived with it....

I've always been a little leery of placing it on or under the nostrils, since it seems that inhaling a petroleum product could potentially cause pneumonia, but it's hard for me to fathom that using it as a chest rub is all that harmful.

One company came out with cherry-scented patches (I think it was Vicks) that you place on the chest, that release the scent and "vapors" of vapo rub without the mess. I loved them for my youngest daughter and they helped her with stuffiness and night-time cough. But they were pulled from the market because some child ate them and suffered a seizure. Gosh, I hate stupid people!

Anybody growing up in the 60's remember the cough syrup Cheracol? It was cherry flavored and so delicious that we couldn't wait to get a cough so we could have some. That was until some kid drank an entire bottle and they changed the flavor to make it less appealing. Boy were we bummed.

That's because the stuff was probably at least 25% alcohol

I was always given plain Vicks 44 cough syrup, which did NOT taste good but soothed a cough like nothing else. Now you can't even find the stuff anywhere. Go figure!

So what's your point

My father, God rest his soul, used to have it put in the back of his throat and up his nostrils. His mother also felt that if he or his siblings liked the taste of a cold med it was not effective and would demand the doctor change it to something less tasty.

We used Vicks BabyRub on ds when he was under 2 and it worked wonders. We never put it under his nose - can see the logic there - but on his chest, it worked like nothing else. My husband swears it is the miracle cure for everything from a sprained ankle or sore back to a bad cold.