Six cough medicines for children under two years old were removed from pharmacy shelves yesterday over fears of possible accidental overdoses.

The Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) ordered the action after increasing reports of adverse reactions by small children to drugs in the preparations, including five deaths since 1981.

Parents will be advised instead to use paracetamol or ibuprofen to lower temperatures in young children suffering a cold or cough and to give them a simple cough syrup containing glycerol, honey or lemon as well as vapour rubs and inhalant decongestants.

Meanwhile, the labelling on dozens of other cough and cold remedies is being changed after the new advice from the MHRA.

The Proprietary Association of Great Britain (PAGB), which represents the makers of the medicines, said they were not being banned for use by older children and were still safe when used as directed.

Sheila Kelly, executive director of the PAGB, said: "Parents should not be concerned that they have harmed their children in any way if they have given them cold remedies in the past.

"Many of the products have been on the market for over 40 years; they are safe when used as recommended and can still be used for children over two."

Labelling on products containing antihistamines, decongestants, cough suppressants and expectorants will now be changed over the next six months so that they are only recommended for children aged two or older.

The MHRA said the affected products would be kept behind pharmacy counters and that anyone who asked to buy them would be questioned about the age of the child who was ill. If the child is older than two, the product can be sold and an advice leaflet will be provided.

MHRA spokeswoman Sara Coakley said letters were sent to healthcare professionals yesterday afternoon explaining the move. "It's a precautionary measure," she said. "If they the medicines had been dangerous, we'd have had them off the market in seconds. Nobody should panic.

"There's nothing wrong with these medicines, it was the way that they had been given."

She said the remedies could be dangerous if people gave their child more than the recommended dose or gave them more than one product at the same time.

Miss Coakley said there had been an increase in "adverse reactions" to the products, but said it had been more widely seen in the United States, where improved packaging has now been introduced.

The MHRA is the government agency responsible for ensuring that medicines and medical devices work and are acceptably safe.

It issued its latest guidelines after updated advice from the Commission on Human Medicines' paediatric medicines expert advisory group.

Professor Rosalind Smyth, the group's chairwoman, said yesterday: "Coughs and colds are generally self-limiting conditions which will get better themselves, usually within a few days.

"The management of symptoms in the under-twos is best achieved with treatment to control fever, together with simple cough mixtures."

The medicines Asda Children's Chesty Cough Syrup. Boots Chesty Cough Syrup One Year Plus. Boots Sore Throat and Cough Linctus One Year Plus. Buttercup Infant Cough Syrup. CalCough Chesty. Bell's Children's Chesty Cough.