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    Wednesday, October 24, 2007

    Drugs and Kids

    I am danged near irate about the recent removal of infant and toddler cold medicines from the stores.

    Mainly because my almost 7yo does not take pills, is allergic to red #40 and blue #1 anyway so couldn't take the small pills for sinus problems, and now the ONLY product on the market that she could take (infant dye-free liquid sudafed) has been pulled. The only other one-drug medicine like it is bright red and cherry flavored.

    Who is the gov to tell me what will and will not work on my family, and who are they to take away my options as a parent, and who are they to remove options in order to "protect" me? I mean seriously, it is sad that children are being overdosed, but it's the parents' fault for not keeping proper track of the time and reading directions fully, as well as staying informed on product recalls. Hmmm, let's see, overdosed kids = medical neglect. Any questions?

    If the FDA wants to complain about something relating to overdosing of children, their first line of attack should be candy flavored and colored medicines. Making them taste better is fine with me, but really, since when did our drugs need to be pretty?!? My kids only take something when they need to, when mom doesn't have access to another option. They despise drugs on the whole, and no amount of glitter, color, or pretty packaging will change that. I'd venture to say from watching commercials all these years, that most kids feel similarly.

    We are forced to suffer every time we get sick. Thank goodness it's not often due to my knowledge of natural medicine and preventatives. Even most prescription medicines have artificial colorings in the blend, and you can't take color out of a product once it's been put in it!

    Last time I asked a doctor for a cough medicine and told him I was allergic to red and blue food colorings, he prescribed something purple! When the kids had strep last year, we had to go to a special pharmacy to get their medicine with red #3 instead of red #40. Lucky for us we're not allergic to all the fake colors, or we likely would have had to go back to the doctor's office for the shot that "wise old physician" denied us the first time when we asked for it.

    Keebler brings up a good point when he mentions that food colorings cost money just like the other ingredients do. If the drug companies are so bent on making money, why spend more on a product than necessary? Especially now that there is not only a huge push for natural colors and dyes in food and drink as well as clear beverages and dye-free ingestibles, but kids also think it is really cool to have something have flavor but no color. It's almost like an adventure, and kids love it!

    I'm no financial of business expert, but even I know that a little common sense and market attention can go a long way towards a higher profit margin.

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    3 comments:

    Unknown said...

    You know what?

    We're going to have more overdosed kids now that they've done this fool thing.

    My entire family has been sick with some nasty cold virus for over two weeks now. I had to figure out how much medicine that is made for children ages 6-12 to administer to my 4 year old since I can no longer buy anything with an antihistamine made for his age range. Idiots. It's a good thing I'm good at math.

    Anonymous said...

    I can sympathize with you on this. However, the dyes are added to pills for identification. It could be very dangerous if they all looked the same.

    Pharmacy Employee

    Todd said...

    What the F is wrong with these drug companies?! *grr* Like you though, we don't get sick very often.