An update from the American Association of Pediatrics (AAP) on fever reducing products, including Covid-19, that is currently trending across the country

“Due to increased demand and various supplier challenges, over-the-counter pediatric fever reducing products are seeing constraint across the country,” Walgreens said in a statement. The limits were put into place “in an effort to help support availability and avoid excess purchases.”

“Supplies of these products are being replenished as quickly as possible, and there is not a widespread shortage in the US. The group said it understood why retailers had put limits on purchases following the recent flu season in which there were numerous cases of children’s pain and fever medicines.

We will continue to encourage consumers to buy what they need, so other families can find and purchase the medicines they are seeking, even though some companies are running manufacturing facilities around the clock to meet demand.

The moves by CVS and Walgreens come amid a brutal respiratory virus season that continues to strain pediatric hospitals. More than 4 out of every 1,000 children younger than five have been hospitalized this season because of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Weekly RSV hospitalizations have dropped dramatically over the past month – but even with the improvements, hospitalizations are still higher than normal. Flu activity remains high, and Covid-19 is trending up across the country.

On its informational page about treating a child’s fever, the American Academy of Pediatrics urges parents “not to panic” if they are unable to find fever-reducing medicine.

“These medicines are not curative. They don’t change the duration of the illness. They are essentially purely for comfort,” Dr. Sean O’Leary, chair of the Committee on Infectious Diseases for the AAP, told NPR earlier this month. “Fevers from common respiratory viruses in and of themselves are not harmful.”