Drugging kids for parents' relief called abusive

If the kids become too much to handle, slip 'em a little cold medicine. It's an often-repeated joke -- or advice -- that parents share on the playground or on Twitter and Facebook pages.

One mom, Jill Smokler, said she doesn't vilify parents who medicate their kids: "It's not the end of the world."

"It's certainly better than being pushed to edge, spanking a child or slamming doors or really losing it," she said.

But drugging children with over-the-counter or prescription medications can have unintended consequences, said the author of a research published Thursday, who likened the practice to child abuse.

The research, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, found an average 160 annual cases in which pharmaceutical drugs were maliciously used on children.

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