Medicine cabinet or liquor cabinet?

Last week I had a doozy of a cold; I spent several days suffering from a sore throat, runny nose, hacking cough, buzzing ears and aching head. I know cough and cold medicines don't really help with the cold, but they sure do a heck of a job with the symptoms, so every night I took a dose of NyQuil. Who wants to cough throughout the night when you can take some vile tasting cherry-vanilla flavored liquid and conk out?

The other day I took a closer look at the bottle and noticed this:


On average, beer contains 5-7% alcohol. Wine contains 10-15% alcohol. And this cough syrup has 10%. WOW. I get tipsy with just a couple of sips of wine. No wonder NyQuil knocks me out at night!



Sure, I've heard about kids abusing cough syrup, but I assumed it was because of the Dextromethorphan, just like I assumed NyQuil and other nighttime cough syrups made you sleepy because of some other ingredient, like the Diphenhydramine HCl in Benadryl. Maybe it's just the alcohol talking?

Now I feel guilty: I gave this stuff to The Pea when she had a cold over winter break. Yes, it does say "Children 4 to under 12 yrs: ask a doctor", but I figured it was just too concentrated for kids and gave her half a dose. Oops, I think I may have set my 9-year old daughter drunk.

Acetaminophen, Doxylamine, Dextromethorphan... who needs all those ingredients? Maybe the next time I have a cold, I should just drink a glass of wine before bedtime.