Hyland's Teething Tablets Recall

[Indigo Duchess]

Not sure if there has been any information yet from Australian authorities but this has just come through from the US Food and Drug Administration regarding a voluntary recall of Hyland's Teething tablets. The product available here may be a different formulation of course but worth noting. http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm230762.htm

[VegieK]

*bump*
I can't see anything on the aussie sites, but really keen for more info....

[The Fox]

wow thats really not good.
I have stopped buying them because they dont have child locks on the lids and my DS managed to get the container open it and eat every tablet that was in it. Poisons said that it wasnt a problem and we wont see any affects because there isnt anything in them.

For the record my son was completely fine but still i think it is irresponsible that the lids can be undone by a 15 month old. and i do take responsibility for not storing them out of his reach, they were on my bedside table because i liked to have them within reach in the middle of the night

[Tam-I-Am]

wow thats really not good.
I have stopped buying them because they dont have child locks on the lids and my DS managed to get the container open it and eat every tablet that was in it. Poisons said that it wasnt a problem and we wont see any affects because there isnt anything in them.

For the record my son was completely fine but still i think it is irresponsible that the lids can be undone by a 15 month old. and i do take responsibility for not storing them out of his reach, they were on my bedside table because i liked to have them within reach in the middle of the night

Have you ever read about what homeopathy is?


What is Homeopathy?

Contrary to popular belief, 'homeopathy' is not the same as herbal medicine.

Homeopathy is based on three central tenets, unchanged since their invention by Samuel Hahnemann in 1796.

The Law of Similars

The law of similars states that whatever would cause your symptoms, will also cure those same symptoms. Thus, if you find yourself unable to sleep, taking caffeine will help; streaming eyes due to hayfever can be treated with onions, and so on. This so-called law was based upon nothing other than Hahnemann's own imagination. You don't need to have a medical degree to see the flawed reasoning in taking caffeine - a stimulant - to help you sleep; yet caffeine is, even today, prescribed by homeopaths (under the name 'coffea') as a treatment for insomnia.

The Law of Infinitesimals

Following on from his 'law of similars', Hahnemann proposed he could improve the effect of his 'like-cures-like treatments' by repeatedly diluting them in water. The more dilute the remedy, Hahnemann decided, the stronger it will become. Thus was born his 'Law of Infinitesimals'.

Taking a single drop of caffeine and diluting in ninety-nine drops of water creates what is known to homeopaths as one 'centesimal'. One drop of this centesimal added to another ninety-nine drops of water produces a two-centesimal, written as 2C. This 2C caffeine potion is 99.99% water and just 0.01% caffeine. At 3C the dilution is 0.0001% caffeine, at 4C it's 0.000001% caffeine, and so on. Homeopathic remedies are commonly sold at 6C (0.000 000 000 1%) and even 30C (0.000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 1%) dilutions, which homeopaths will often drip onto little balls of sugar to sell.

When these numbers are written out, it's easy to see how absurd they are. At 12C you pass what is known as the Avogadro Limit, the point at which there is likely nothing of your original substance left.
By the time you reach 30C, you have more chance of winning the lottery five weeks running than you have of finding a single caffeine molecule in your homeopathic sleeping draft. It's just ordinary water, dripped onto ordinary sugar.

The Law of Succussion

While transporting his remedies on a horse-drawn carriage, Hahnemann made another 'breakthrough'. He decided that the vigorous shaking of a homeopathic remedy would further increase its potency. This shaking process was named 'succussion'. When ritually preparing a homeopathic remedy, the homeopath will shake or tap the preparation at each stage of dilution, in order to 'potentize' it.

Modern homeopaths believe that this 'potentization' process allows the water to retain the 'memory' or 'vibrations' of the original substance, long after it has been diluted away to nothing. Of course, there is no good scientific evidence to suggest that water has such an ability, nor any indication of how it might be able to use this 'memory' to cure a sick patient.

Does it work?

Despite being rooted in supersition, ritual and sympathetic magick, the laws devised by Hahnemann are still in use by homeopaths today.

For Hahnemann's Laws to be correct, we would have to toss out practically everything we have learned over the past two centuries about biology, pharmacology, mathematics, chemistry and physics. Illnesses are not effectively treated by administering substances which cause similar symptoms; serial dilution and succussion does not 'potentize' a remedy. Water has no memory, nor any way of using one if it did! Homeopathy could never work in the way Hahnemann described it, but does it work at all?
The most comprehensive review of homeopathic treatments ever conducted was published in the medical journal The Lancet in 2005. The paper analysed every clinical investigation then published into the effects of homeopathy, and concluded that any apparent benefits from homeopathic 'treatments' were simply placebo effects. Homeopathy does not work. This conclusion was supported by the Cochrane Collaboration, an independent global network of medical professionals tasked with examining medical research to determine exactly which treatments are effective.


http://www.1023.org.uk/what-is-homeopathy.php

So Poison Information is right - there's no danger from them. They're sugar tablets, not medicine.

Except in the case where they actually put something poisonous like Belladonna in quantities enough to actually poison a child in them :eek:

[Made in England]

wow, this has scared the cr@p out of me. i've been giving these to DD. She's been ok, but it still worries me, and i won't be using them again

[GypsyFortuneTeller]

Sorry to take over your thread OP for a second - Why does everyone RAVE about Hylands Teething tablets if they are prettyuch just sugar tablets? I' ve met tons & tons of mums who swear by them?????? Even the other day one mum literally dived in front of me to grab the last one at the chemist. I asked her was she a fan (lol) & she was ranting on bout how great they were (FYI I used them & they didn't seem to make a difference with DD).

[VegieK]

They work for my DS - for whatever reason. I think if you find something that works then thats great... however I am still trying to find more info about them for if there is a recall of them in Australia, will let you know if I find anything.

[VegieK]

Just found this
http://www.hylandsteething.com/recall/teething-tablet-recall-faq.html#c

"Q: Is this a global recall? If not, what countries are not affected?
A: Yes. However we can only provide refunds and coupons in North America"

:thumbsdown:

[Pinkzy]

Sh*t. I buy these for my son all the time :( They settle him so well...I guess now I know why.

[Areca]

From Hyland's

http://www.hylandsteething.com/recall/teething-tablet-recall.html

So they are saying they are safe....who to believe?

[Pinkzy]

Ugh. I posted this link on Facebook and one of my friends pretty much said "Well I've never had a problem, so they must be OK" - that response annoys me so much!! I am not going to buy them anymore. This has really worried me to be honest.

[elleandsam]

So are they safe to use or not?

[Pinkzy]

It's not looking like they're safe to use - if Belladonna is in them then they're definitely not safe. Especially for babies.

[Areca]

I don't know if the'yre safe or not. This is what Hylands has to say about Belladonna being in their product


Belladonna is included in the Tablets to ease the redness, inflammation and discomfort of the child’s gum that often occurs during the teething process. Belladonna 3X HPUS is manufactured from the whole plant, of which a small portion is Belladonna alkaloids (the component sometimes associated with side effects). Each Teething Tablet (which weighs about 65 mg) is composed of 0.0003% Belladonna alkaloids as stated on the label. This means that each complete teething tablet contains only approximately 0.0002 mg of Belladonna alkaloids.

The amount of Belladonna alkaloids in teething tablets is minuscule, especially when compared to conventional medicine. Conventional medicines typically use 0.2 to 5 mg of Belladonna alkaloids per tablet as an anti-spasmodic – roughly 1,000 to 25,000 times larger than the quantities used in Hyland’s Teething Tablets. The side effects sometimes caused by conventional medicines delivering more than 0.2 mg of Belladonna alkaloids – such as dry mouth, blurred vision and urinary retention – are not associated with homeopathic medicines because of their minute dosage.

To put homeopathic dosages in perspective, typically a 10-pound child would need to ingest 1,000 Hyland’s Teething Tablets (at least 6 bottles of 125 tablets) to exhibit even the first possible side effect of Belladonna.

I don't have a teething baby right now so I'm not going to throw them out. I'll be interested to see what the FDA finds and will make my decision from there.

[Sheer Bliss]

It's not looking like they're safe to use - if Belladonna is in them then they're definitely not safe. Especially for babies.

I am pretty sure it has always been on the packaging that it has Belladonna in them, it's not anything new that they have jsut been 'found out' on if that makes any sense. They have never hidden the fact that they have it in them, it's just the quantity.

Iron is deadly in high doses, yet it is still sold in lower dose quantities as it's benefits in small doses are so great. Fact is that Iron tablets are not in a childsafe bottle and many people keep them in low places and not locked away out of reach of children, and there is actually enough iron in adult iron tablets to kill a child.

Not saying that the tablets are definately OK, but my gut feeling is that they are, as using some of the logic applied above, makes the recall seem a bit of an over-reaction. I am with Acrea though - wait and see what the findings are before I throw them out.

[Pinkzy]

Oh OK. I'll wait and see what the findings are before I get rid of them then. In the mean time I'll use Teetha instead.

[Guest1234]

A friends child ate a whole bottle, and she called poisons to be told that the child would have had to have had 6 whole bottles to have an effect on him, and 11 bottles to have a deadly effect.
I'm not too concerned. I knew about it containing belladonna. I did my research before using them and felt confident in using them. I never had a issue but if I felt that they affected my children in any way I would discontinue using them. I still feel the same way and this 'new finding' doesn't change that, because I already knew everything they have 'found'.

[Sammie1986]

sorry.......thought I might add this....
http://www.onlykent.com/20101025/hylands-teething-tablet-recall-potentially-toxic-sunstance-detected/

and another.....
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20020623-10391704.html

I have never used them before for either of my boys but know o a few people who have suggested them...

[KBaby]

everyone has a diffrent reaction to them.
I used them for my first who is 7 now, and they were great, I use them for my 9 month old and GREAT.