Only one in three kids' drugs FDA approved

Many parents do not realize less than one-third of drugs are U.S. government approved for children, researchers said.

A study by the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health indicated 83 percent of parents believe the last medication prescribed for their child was U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved.

Not all medicines that are FDA approved for adults are safe and effective for children to use -- the dose of medicine, how fast the medicine is processed in the body and side effects of the medicine can be different for children than for adults, Davis said.

The survey of 2,131 U.S. adults indicated that 94 percent of parents said it was the doctor's responsibility to tell them if their child's medicine is not FDA-approved.

Steve - this is comforting, eh? We explored this issue years ago and nothing has been done about it.