Ever since the FDA, or whoever it is who decides these things, determined that cold medicine was not good for kids and had it removed from all the shelves of all the pharmacies across America, I have been in a panic.

What happens if my kids get a cold? What happens if they get a stuffy nose? What am I supposed to do? A little Tylenol Cold, or "purple gold" as I like to call it, is my life blood in times of illness. Without it, my kids won't sleep, I won't sleep, our whole house will be sick and tired, literally!

I quickly took all of my bottles of grape flavored Tylenol Cold, stashed them away on the highest shelf in the tallest medicine cabinet in our house and decided that since I only had a little, I would ration it. I would only pull it out in dire emergencies, when absolutely utterly necessary.

It sort of reminded me of that Seinfeld episode when Elaine flips out upon hearing that they have stopped producing "The Sponge" because the FDA, or whoever it is who decides these things, has determined them to be unsafe. She manages to clear out every drug store on the west side and stashes her sponges safely in her closet. However, she immediately becomes so picky about her partners because she doesn't want to waste a sponge that she basically stops having sex. That is now me with cold medicine.

The past few days Aidan, my littlest boy, has had a cold. I eyed his stuffy nose, checked out the boogers, and listened to his breathing to assess whether he was indeed "med-worthy". At first he wasn't. "Nope," I said. "You don't need it. You can breathe. You're still sleeping, a little. You'll be fine." I rubbed vaseline on his dried cracked nose and scooted him back over to the couch with his box of tissues. But all that changed last night.

I put him down to sleep at 9. He woke up first at 10,30, then 11:30, then 12:30, then 1:30. Each time it was the same; uncontrollable crying, a refusal to lie down, and yelling, "I have a stuffy dose!" That was it, he was officially "med-worthy," the determining factor being my ability to sleep.

I got out my measuring equipment and meticulously measured 5 ml of medicine. Then I administered his ration, before locking away the remaining purple gold. He slept soundly the rest of the night. I gave him another ration the following night, which, again, helped him sleep well.

I just don't understand why the FDA, or whoever it is who decides these things, had to take pediatric cold medicines off the shelves? The stuff works for my kids. I'm a responsible parent. I never over prescribe. My kids have never had a bad reaction to the medicines, but now they are being denied. Lord knows there are worse things I could give my kid if I were a bad parent who didn't read labels, follow directions or was in any other way negligent. And, I think taking the medicine off the shelves hurts kids more than helps them. We all know there will be desperate mothers out there who will end up giving their kids the adult version of cold medicine to help them sleep, putting their kids at even more risk than they would have been if the kids' version were still available. It's totally screwy!

My only hope is that the FDA, or whoever it is who decides these things, will realize what a ridiculous decision this was, and that once again I will be able to buy my purple gold. In the mean time, it just seems cruel that my kids have to be "sick enough" to get any relief, and that relief is only good until 12/08 when all of my purple gold expires.