Matthew Davis quoted in Wall Street Journal about children's medicine

May 13, 2013

Matthew Davis, MD was quoted in a Wall Street Journal article about warnings on the use of cold and cough medicine for children.

In 2008 the Food and Drug Administration advised against giving medicine to very young children and manufacturers agreed to put warnings on medicine packaging that drugs shouldn't be given to children under four.

According to an April 2013 C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health, 42 percent of parents with children under four still gave them cough medicine despite the warnings. Davis told the Wall Street Journal that he was surprised and concerned with the survey findings, "If you're a parent who doesn't know the story, you're going to think this [medicine] is for your kids."

Davis is an associate professor of public policy, associate professor of pediatrics and communicable diseases, and an associate professor of internal medicine. He is also the director of the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health and the chief medical executive for the state of Michigan.