How many of you have the urge upon reading this headline “Vicks Might Make Kids Sicker” to immediately forward the article to your mother and say, “See I told you so all those years ago! I knew that nasty stuff was making me feel worse!!”

Actually, those noxious fumes radiating up from our chests as children when we had colds may have been harming us after all–not just annoying us–if we were young enough, says MSNBC.

Use of Vicks VapoRub in toddlers may actually make them sicker, new research suggests. The menthol salve can actually irritate the airways and make them smaller in children under the age of two, a dangerous thing when you already have lungs filled with phlegm.

However, there is something to note about this new study–it was not performed in humans–it was performed on ferrets. So, of course, Procter and Gamble jumped on the chance to say the study was less than conclusive due to the rodent research.

In reality, when you read the results–they AREN’T that conclusive–in fact, the live animal results aren’t even statistically significant. So, why the crusade against Vicks? Perhaps part conventional wisdom that it does no good, perhaps part recent events which include a young girl who presented to an emergency room in respiratory distress after using Vicks.

In any case, it seems clear the verdict is still out on the mentholated rub. So perhaps you should save that accusatory email to your mother–just for a little while.

Summer Johnson, PhD