A south Mumbai family of doctors had a harrowing time last Thursday (December 15) when, for about 20 minutes, they couldn’t find pulse in their 30-month-old child soon after he was given a cough syrup. Cough syrups are widely used, but pain management specialist Dr Tilu Mangeshikar’s experience underlines an oft-forgotten medical warning: cough syrups should rarely if at all be prescribed or given to children under three or four years of age.