Health professionals in eastern Ontario say they have been getting lots of questions from parents about the safety of giving cold and cough medicines to their children after recent warnings from Health Canada.

The department issued an advisory in October and a reminder in December warning that "life-threatening adverse events, including unintentional overdose" in children under the age of two have been associated with some over-the-counter cold medications.

Since then, pharmacists such as Jean Tang said parents have been asking lots of questions about whether even children between age two and 12 should be given such medicine.

"They want to know if it's still safe," said Tang, who works in Gananoque, Ont., about 30 kilometres east of Kingston. "And our answer is, yes, it's still safe because it was realistically the children under the age of two that were falling into the overdose bracket."

Dr. Richard van Wylick, a pediatrician at the Hotel Dieu Hospital in Kingston, Ont., said he has been talking to parents about the advisories, which specifically warn that they should not combine two or more medicines. That's because many contain the same ingredients, and taking two different ones can result in a double dose.

"I think it's important for us as health care providers to get the message out we need to be vigilant about all over the counter medicines," Dr. Van Wylick said, adding that parents need to read and follow the instructions on the drugs' labels.

Health Canada issued its warning in October after a U.S.-led recall of infant cough and cold medicines because of the overdose risk.

It issued a reminder in December, and said it is currently working to determine if the labelling on more than 700 authorized non-prescription cold and cough products provides enough information to allow Canadians to make an informed decision on the safe use of the products.