As more parents learn that over-the-counter cold and cough medications don't really work on children, drug companies are reading the writing on the wall -- and changing the writing on the label to advise against giving the remedies to children younger than 4.

The new labels would probably guard against the worst of the dangers for young children, who have ended up in emergency rooms largely because of overdoses. Some of that is because the kids break into the medicine cabinet to get the sweet-tasting stuff, but it also happens when parents, seeing that their children haven't gotten better after taking a drug, assume they've underdosed them and give them more.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is treading slowly and softly on this issue, which it has been weighing for more than a year. Some of the concern is that if the FDA bans the pediatric formulations altogether, parents might make things worse by giving their kids the adult meds. A better interim move might  be labels advising parents not to use them on children younger than 8 or 10 -- and informing parents that studies have shown that the medications are no more effective in children than a placebo. The question is, how serious will regulators be about protecting consumers' wallets as well as children's health? The makers of these products have a $2 billion-a-year industry going.

Aside from financial issues, there's a down side to using a product that doesn't work. While parents continue to give their children the medications, they might be ignoring treatments that hold more promise -- like honey for coughs (not to be used in children younger than 1 year old), saline nasal sprays or irrigation and chicken soup for colds.