Unbelievable! Sudocrem and attitude!

[woadie]

Hi all,

I've been a member of mumsnet for just a short while, and generally I don't feel the need to speak out, preferring to read. Most of my questions have been asked before so I always find excellent advice from the Mums in here just by looking through threads :)

This, though, I have to share!

My daughter (mow 11 months) discovered she could get the lid of the sudocrem a couple of months ago. She also decided to dip her hand in and take a nice big mouthful of the stuff before we could grab her. Sudocrem everwhere and a good amount noshed off. We would have taken this as a one-off incident but she did it again. Both times we piled up to the doctor and both times, yes she had side effects.

She will try to grab whatever nappy rash cream we have to hand. Luckily for us, it's only the sudocrem she can get the lid off, and it's only the sudocrem she seems to favour wanting to eat. Less luckily for us, we like the sudocrem best!

So, we scooped the sudocrem into a jamjar with a good screw on lid, and I decided to contact Sudocrem to tell them what happened and point out that their pot design is a bit rubbish for our child (who I would take as a pretty average baby/toddler).

Their reply was basically to keep the pot away from her (doh! yes I think as a mum I know that one, but we all know nappy change time!). But more to the point, my daughter was then sujected to a lab-rat set of questions with very shallow apology but plenty of interest in side effects.

I was pretty disgusted and decided just not to reply to their email but today I got a second one from the same lab person, again requesting info:

"Further to my email, I am writing to follow-up the incident whereby your 11 month old daughter ingested Sudocrem Antiseptic Healing Cream on two occasions. I sincerely hope she is well and has fully recovered from both events.

It is our duty to follow-up such medication errors, and I would be most grateful if you could provide us with the following information for our safety records:

(1) Your address, or if you do not wish us to have this detail, the geographical area in which you reside.

(2) The initials of your daughter.

(3) How much of the 125g pot of Sudocrem do you think she managed to eat on each occasion? Also, do you happen to know the dates of these events?

(4) Did your daughter suffer any side-effects from the ingestion of Sudocrem Antiseptic Healing Cream? Has she fully recovered?

(5) Did you take her to the doctor? If so, what was the outcome?

I thank you in advance for your time and co-operation regarding this matter. Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Best wishes (name)"

Now, am I right to feel so utterly ANGRY about this?!!!! My daughter is the most precious thing in tjhe world to me, and much as I wqould hate any other parents children to suffer through sudocrem ingestion, I do not wish my child to be seem as some lab-rat to add to their case studies!!!! As much as anything, it was the whole tone of this that set my teeth on edge.

What do you think?

By the way, my daughter had runny poos for days after each ingestion, much as the doctor said she would, so eating sudocrem isn't something I would like her to do again.

Thanks for reading :)

How was an 11mth old subject to a barrage of questions ? Do you mean that they asked you about the circumstances of what had happened ?

How else would they find out the details ? Rather than being "disgsuted" I'd invest your energies in basic measures to put the pot a little bit further away from the child.

You sound a little overwrought about a tiny thing.

Okay so how do people cope with bepanthen in a tube with a screw on cap?!

tesco own brand - very similar design but tighter fitting lid.

I wasn't suggesting they put a lock on it really.... ;)

I don't understand, surely there are all sorts of products that have easy to open lids that are used around children, you just have to keep them out of their way, and if they ingest some, it is your fault, not the fault of the manufacturer.

I use a tube (weleda cream to be precise).
I quickly put a dab on my finger, screw the lid back on tighly, had tube to dd to hold so she doesn't squirm. job done.
they have changed their design btw, they used to have a flip-open tube, which a 10week old baby could open...

FWIW, I agree with you about the packaging woadie. It's stupid to have a prise off lid like that. Wouldn't kill them to make it screw on.

And would have saved my carpet (but I did leave it in reach so mea culpa that time).

I don't really see anything wrong with the way they've worded their reply though.

How did it happen twice?

Because I took the lid off, took a scoop of cream, put the lid on the pot and put it to the side (we don't have a changing stand, we have floor, floor or floor), and in the time it took me to grab a squirming child who hates having her nappy changed, and get the cream on (which as some of you will know means cream in several different areas when they squirm) and in that time she had managed to reach the pot pop the lid and stick her hand in.

Okay so some of the more judgemental amongst you will now say 'you did not put it far enough away' and others will say 'yes thats easily done in those circumstances'.

To the more judgemental who obviously have saintly children who never put anything they shouldnt in their mouths and who have perfect homes with nothing ever, ever left even within a whisker of their children, and who can take them out and never worry about the same... I apologise.

To the rest of us who know that in an ideal world these things don't happen but we do our very very best to make sure they dont, thanks for the concern and the lack of judgement.

Very, very odd post.

If I had left the pot lid OFF I would blame myself.

If I had left the pot next to her I would blame myself.

I left the pot at a distance I judged wrongly so maybe I am partially to blame.

However, if I am using a pot with a tight lid she cannot remove, its irrelavent anyway. I would think that there has to be a safety element to lid design around children, regardless.

Having said that, if the cream posed a danger perhaps the lid design would be different.

you can buy it with a flip lid

www.westons.com/cgi/sh000247.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwestons%2ecom%2f&WD=sudocrem&PN=Online_Catalogue_Sudocrem_2326%2ehtml%23aSUD93B#aSUD93B

woadie, those questions are almost certainly just taken from the form that Sudocreme has to send to the medicines safety regulator when they hear about an incident. The information gets collated and used to track drug safety overall. it can only be helpful to provide it.

on that note, I'll leave you, as most of you have made very fair and valid points and I thank you for the advice and helping me see sense with respect to the email I recieved, and why I should respond.

But a few of you have your claws out and tbh I don't think a forum is a place for being a claw crazed b. Cheers.

p.s. thanks transferbalance, that was really helpful and I'm going to buy some!

"Unbelievable! Sudocrem and attitude!"

Wow @ this thread

What is "yellow card"?

As Oscar Wilde never said -

to leave the top off the sudocrem once may be regarded as a misfortune; to leave the top off the sudocrem twice looks like carelessness....

And using a glass jam jar for a cream which your daughter is obviously attracted to is sensible how?

He would have been talking about pseudocreme though surely?

I feel really sorry for the OP's stress, but my goodness, if they change the lid because of it to a childproof one then I am foooked. I need all hands to hold DS still and can just about open the current lid with my teeth

Drug Companies have a legal obligation to follow up adverse incidents with regards to their products - just ignore the email if you want - but I can't see how any of the questions are upsetting you.
Your dd ate the cream they just want to add to their data on file with regards to side effects or not of eating the cream. It means that if someone else contacts them regarding their child eating the cream they can tell them your experience.