The FDA is considering a plan to ban all children’s cough and cold medicines for children under the age of 12. Every mother needs to speak up to tell the FDA to trust mothers to responsibly medicate their children.

For many years, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has shown confidence in moms’ ability to intelligently purchase and administer over-the-counter (OTC) cough and cold medicines for their children.

Today, however, some are questioning the FDA for trusting moms in this way, and are asking the agency to sharply limit parents’ access to children’s cough and cold medicines by making them completely unavailable without a prescription.

Everyday in America, as so many of us know, OTC cough and cold medicines for kids help moms help their sick children, providing needed relief for both. The vast majority of parents take care to administer these medicines appropriately and to store them safely, cap locked closed and away from children’s reach. That there have been some incidences of accidental overdose does not merit, in our view, a drastic measure to ban them outright. Where risks of side effects exist–as they do with all medicines–we believe that most moms can assess them intelligently and reasonably, reading the label carefully and using good judgment.

We applaud the FDA for trusting moms’ abilities and judgment in this area to date, and we’re teaming up with advocates around the country to rally support for the agency to uphold its stance and protect our access to the OTC children’s cough and cold medicines we use and need.

Sign the “Keep Kids Well Petition” right away. Urge the FDA to continue to protect moms’ access to OTC cough and cold meds for our kids.