The Food and Drug Administration has officially declared cold and cough medications too risky for young children. As a result, products such as Procter & Gamble Co.'s (NYSE: PG) Vicks products and Wyeth Consumer Healthcare's (NYSE: WYE) Robitussin products may need some consumer re-badging as informed parents start to look for alternatives to giving that crying baby a spoonful of cold medication at night.

The FDA suggested that all cold and cough medications should be kept out of the mouths of any child under the age of two years. This had been expected for a while and the shoe finally dropped this week. Have some children's Tylenol or Pediacare in the cabinet for that toddler? Out it goes. These products will soon carry a stern warning which will include: "serious and potentially life-threatening side effects can occur."

The FDA has also said that these targeted cold and cough medications don't help kids under 6. But that's not all -- cough and cold medications for older children are also being looked at by the FDA, and there may be a decision come this spring. Those pre-teen kids may be out of luck as well when it comes to over-the-counter decongestants, antihistamines and cough suppressants.

With some child deaths recently from "overdoses" of a component found in many cough and cold medicines, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is likely to scrutinize and change things in the pharmaceutical industry as a result. Although cold medicines are used millions of times each year by parents without incident, brands like Wyeth's (NYSE: WYE) Dimetapp and Robitussin and Johnson & Johnson's (NYSE: JNJ) Pediacare are being looked at pretty harshly in light of recent problems.

A two-day meeting that concludes today will determine if the over-the-counter cold remedies are indeed safe for young children -- or if they should be sold under some kind of new rule. Although the drug industry says that these medicines are used 3.8 billion times per year with children, accidental overdoses of late that have claimed the lives of some children, and those parents need more education on the proper use of these products.