Shipping medicine abroad?

[Jadefeather7]

Has anyone ever sent a non prescription medicine abroad? Is it possible? The destination country is Canada. I’ve tried looking online but can’t find much info.

My brother and his wife are doctors

I googled Personal Antibiotic Resistance but all I found was articles confirming my previous understanding that it is bacteria not people that develop resistance. Any links @XXcstatic ?

Actually it’s lidocaine not benzocaine

Possibly in the UK, but not in North America. Link here

I'd look for a Canadian supplier. Most countries have businesses that sell stuff to expats who want stuff from "home"

I lived in a country where painkillers for kids are suppositories and used such a business to buy Calpol as an alternative.

I googled Personal Antibiotic Resistance but all I found was articles confirming my previous understanding that it is bacteria not people that develop resistance

It is the bacteria that develop the resistance. The problem is that, if you use antibiotics for an infection, they don't just affect the bacteria you are trying to kill. The commensal flora - the harmless bacteria normally present in the body - also come into contact with the antibiotic and can develop resistance and become a reservoir for resistance.

Bacteria can 'teach' other bacteria how to resist a given antibiotic. So , the next time a person with a reservoir of resistant bacteria gets infected with - say - a streptococcal throat infection - the streptococci can 'learn' how to resist the antibiotic from the reservoir bacteria, and the antibiotic doesn't work.

Looks like Walmart Canada sell it?

www.walmart.ca/en/ip/Anbesol-Liquid-Size-4z-Anbesol-Cool-Mint-Liquid-Mouth-Pain-Relief/PRD653WKH30FYZN

Oh! That’s a new one to me XXcstatic. Thanks

It's only started to be properly understood in the last few years, Budgie but, for me, it's the number 1 reason to avoid antibiotics if at all possible. I get recurrent UTIs and I used to have antibiotics for them fairly regularly, but now I avoid unless really bad because I'm scared that they won't work in a severe infection.

travel.gc.ca/travelling/health-safety/medication

www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/drugs-health-products/compliance-enforcement/importation-exportation/guidance-document-import-requirements-health-products-under-food-drugs-act-regulations-0084.html#a6

These should help with the rules on OTC medicines

@TitianaTitsling That’s different to the UK one. The active ingredient in that one is benzocaine whereas the U.K. one is lidocaine . Also the UK one specifically says that it can be used in babies for teething.

Why would you want to possibly endanger a child’s health? Lidocaine gel has been proven to cause illness? Negative consequences. It will take a week to get here especially now that Christmas ( extra staff) is gone. The teething woes will be long over.
If the parents are drs. they easily have access to lidocaine gel anyway.

If it was so dangerous it would be banned in the U.K.

Also teething is not a one off occurrence. She has 2 teeth so far, so another 18 to go.

The gel version which the parents have access to there isn’t very good. As countless mumsnet posts on the effectiveness of Anbesol will reveal the liquid version is much more effective

FFS, it's not a vial of crack! Just send it. People do it all the time.

We post to Canada all the time. Just stick a vial in. Don't send loads in one go and pack it well with other things.

@MartyrGuacamole thanks, just planning to send one bottle so they can see if it works. If it does I can send a few bottles with my parents in the summer.

Yeah, just send the one bottle. I bring loads back from N. and S. America and send some stuff from here, particularly Volterol gel and melatonin.

If it was so dangerous it would be banned in the U.K

I didn't say it was dangerous or that you shouldn't send it. All drugs have potential side-effects. I was trying to help you by explaining why it's not available in Canada in the liquid form.