Artificial sweeteners in childrens medicine

[elissas]

I'm not impressed. In fact, I'm downright angry. I've just seen the packaging of children's Dymadon and Dimetapp, and they contain Saccharin. I'm assuming that Baby Panadol has it too, as they advertise not containing sugar (but have flavour), but can't find it on the bottle. I'd rather DS have sugar - big time!!

The Chemical Maze (fantastic book on food additives) reports the following potential health effects for Saccharin: headache, cancer, urticaria (skin condition like hives), shrunken testicles, lowered testosterone levels, and mutagen (causing mutation of genetic cells).

Well, those bottles are no longer welcome in my house :thumbsdown: . Might keep some baby panadol just in case for rare occasions, but otherwise I'm off to check the Brauers range tomorrow.

[aardvark]

I'm with you - at least sugar is a food, not just a chemical.

I try to avoid all the artificial sweeteners, and keep them away from my children, too.

We've been on organic food for some time now, and noticed a real difference in our health. It would be nice to be able to trust common over the counter medicines when required, but now being a habitual label reader, there's not much left to trust.

I found it very hard when I was expecting and still exercising vigorously to find a sport drink without an artificial sweetener, too. I managed to find that one certain flavour of gastrolyte was sweetener free, and I drank that instead.

[elissas]

Yeah, I'm not happy. I've banned all artificial sweeteners from entering my house, and was duped with these.

And what makes me even angrier is how they're so sneaky about it. Dimetapp for example, don't have it on the bottle. They have it on the box in a section "Also contains", but not on the bottle. How many people would throw the box out thinking that all the info they need is on the bottle? I don't anymore, but I know that I used to.

[cwsmum]

What do you give instead of panadol? I rarely give anything like that to my kids, but sometimes you need to...so what do you suggest? I have read way too many scary things about artificial sweetners recently :(

[elissas]

Are you breastfeeding? Fantastic pain relief for bubs.

Chamomile tea is soothing for belly upsets and general out of sorts type stuff (like from immunisations).

I'll be sticking with saline, the vaporiser or breast milk up the nose to clear congestion instead of Dimetapp (which I only bought on the weekend).

I also do Reiki, which seems to help soothe and settle him too.

But for other stuff, that's why I'm off to look into Brauers. He's just started teething, and up till now we haven't really had any issues. So I want to know there's something that's effective for him.

[cwsmum]

No, I'm not breastfeeding.
I have a 3yr old who has a cold at the moment...I've been giving him the honey & onion stuff mum used to give us thru the day to help his throat but he also has a headache on and off...as you do with a cold...so I've had to give him something at night to help him sleep.
Thankfully DD hasn't got a cold, poor little thing has only just gotten over a virus that lasted 12days.

I'd be interested to hear what you find out about the Brauers stuff :)

[SassyDiva]

WOW... Thanks for the heads up, I've used the sugar free baby panadol on both my boys and had absolutly no idea.

[Pixie]

wow thanks for that I was aware of that and aspartame didn't realise it was in those!

[rynosmum]

I have just checked Nurofen for Children which is colour-free and sugar-free.

It also contains saccharine sodium.

[Briannabear]

If you have a look you'll also find that most toothpastes (including children and baby ones) have sodium saccharine too. :mad:
I hate that stuff. There's plenty of other alternatives, I dont know why they have to use that ****.

[elissas]

Thanks for the heads up Becca!

I've had a look on the Brauer website - www.brauer.com.au You can look up all their products and get details info on each one, including all the ingredients. I'll definitely be trying their Pain and Fever Relief, and their Teething relief.

At least good, old fashioned gripe water is still on the menu here - that's ok!!

I think it's a safe assumption that anything that advertises itself as sugar free but has a flavour will pretty much contain some kind of artificial flavouring.

Childhood obesity has zippo to do with a bit of panadol or medicine - in most cases it simply comes down to poor diet and low activity levels. Sugar free pain relief is not going to make a bit of difference. What are they thinking????

[aardvark]

OK, I did some investigating this afternoon with the help of my local pharmacist.

All the commercially available mixtures have artificial sweeteners.

Aside from the homeopathic mixtures, or whatever you can get from a naturopath or herbalist, there is another option.

You call a Compounding Pharmacist, and order a mixture to be made up, just like they used to do in the "old days".

I called the one on the corner of Union and Canterbury roads in Surrey Hills (Vic), because it is just up the road from Pure Baby, where I have something to collect on Friday anyway.

They can make me a mixture the same strength as baby panadol, in my choice of natural flavour (there's quite a list to choose from), with no artificial additives. $18 for 50 ml, six month shelf life.

There were two other compounding pharmacies listed in Melbourne, there will be others in other states.

When I go to collect it, I will ask about antibiotic mixtures, too, as the usual syrups from the pharmacy will also contain sweeteners. I'll let you know what I find out.

[MamaSage]

I have a friend whose little boy has a banana allergy, he suffers anaphylaxis if he has it. When he was on antibiotics, the stuff was yellow and banana flavoured, he had a reaction.. Why can't they just put the necessary stuff in and leave all the filler and flavours out?:mad:

On another note, someone mentioned toothpaste. Even kids colgate has sodium lauareth sulphate in it. :eek: The stuff is evil and it is in kids toothpaste, knowing that most kids eat it. Tsk tsk.

[reAllytee]

Why can't they just put the necessary stuff in and leave all the filler and flavours out?:mad:


Because to be honest not that i agree with these things being used but you would have buckleys chance of getting a baby to take it without a sweetner or a "taste".
Sorry but either your friends should have advised of an allergy which any good pharmacist should have asked about anyways.
Again as i said i hate the things but babies prefer sweet thats what bm is sweet !
So as aardvark said find a compounding pharmacy in your state this is the best thing i know there is one in the city who used to make up my ms tablet mixture.
Plus the thing is the more we push for these types of things the more there will be something done about it because there is a market out there for them to make money off.
Brauers is another good brand to rely on they are a god send.

[MamaSage]

I do see your point, but you should see the rank tasting herbal stuff our naturopath makes Bridie take, lol! I just squirt it down the old neck hole :eek:

[reAllytee]

LOL !
Please come get my little devil to take it then LOL !
He either wont open his mouth even with me almost holding him down & forcing his mouth open LOL or if i do get it down he spits it in my face :rolleyes:
Yes i love my son :rolleyes:
This is the line i write daily LOL !
But seriously cause i can be serious at least brauers tastes yummy LOL yes ive tried it i always try what i give my child thats why i stopped with panadol cause of that revolting vanilla cherry stuff gosh i wouldnt give that to a cockroach ! Then i realised what was in it so i now only keep neurofen for absolute emergencies even though it has the same stuff but you require less & it works for longer etc. But again tis an emergency back up.

[Briannabear]

What I dont understand is why they have to use artificial sweeteners. :mad: There are other alternatives to cane sugar that are healthier!

[aardvark]

I agree - I would not be bothering to get a mixture made up if the commercially prepared ones contained Stevia instead.

[aardvark]

I got the paracetamol mixture, no probs. And walking into the pharmacy was quite strange. It had the "Chemist" smell I remember from when I was a child, and nothing much pre-packaged on the shelves. Sort of like a cross between the Apothecary at Sovereign Hill and a health food shop would be the best way to describe it. Lots of homeopathic treatments available there.

If in the future I was to need antibiotic mixtures, however, that is a different story.

Apparently the pharmacist is unable to source the powder to make the mixtures. I am going to investigate other compounding pharmacies, and see what they say, so watch this space.

Interestingly, I had never put two and two together before this thread. DD#2 often gets eczema when she has been on antibiotics. Now the question is "Is it the antibiotics causing it, or the sh!t they put in the mixture?".

[elissas]

Thanks Aardvark!

Can you pm me the address and phone number of the pharmacy?

I'm curious as to whether they'll make up a nasal decongestant for him too. Like a version of Dimetapp. Will gets really congested some mornings to the point where he can't feed unless I use the Fess aspirator, and the whole experience is traumatic for both of us, as he hates it.

The saline and vaporiser work most times, but sometimes we just need to dry it up for him.

Just to let everyone know too, I'm using Brauers Teething Relief and it's fantastic. And it doesn't dope him up like pain killers do. Just relaxes him to where he SHOULD be. I bought the Pain and Fever Relief but it's for 6mths an over, so I have to wait before I can use that one.