The American Academy of Pediatrics released a statement urging parents and doctors to please stop giving children under the age of 18 both prescription and over-the-counter medications that include codeine, such as cough syrups and pain relievers.

Originally, The FDA was investigating the safety of using medicines that contained codeine to treat coughs and colds in children under the age of 18, because of potential serious problems, like slow or difficult breathing.

“People have this very false misconception about codeine, thinking that it is safer than other opioids,” Dr. Joseph Tobias, one of the study’s lead authors, told The Huffington Post. “Our whole push for writing this manuscript was to educate clinicians and push regulatory boards to pull codeine off the market for pediatric patients.”

Codeine is an opiate drug once commonly used in over-the-counter cough syrups and as painkillers. But the report notes that a rare genetic variation makes some people metabolize it too quickly, potentially resulting in excessive sleepiness and difficulty breathing. A different genetic variation makes the drug ineffective for pain relief in as many as a third of patients.

It was found by U.S. researchers that codeine and combined codeine as well as acetaminophen medication to be linked to rare life-threatening and fatal breathing reactions in children. It was later reported to the FDA that 64 cases of severe respiratory depression and 24 codeine-related deaths ― 21 of which were in children under 12 ― over a 50-year period from 1969 through 2015.

“Doctors and parents should choose another remedy when possible, including acetaminophen and ibuprofen for pain and simple remedies such as ice or popsicles after tonsillectomies”, said Dr. Charles Cote, a Boston anesthesiologist and co-author of the report.