Additives in medicines

[Liza80]

A little while ago, I decided to google all the E numbers in my Calpol bottle, what I found shocked me to the very core!
I urge you all to do the same with any childrens medicines you have.
It's so upsetting to think that I gave this stuff to my beautiful baby girl, while being so careful to avoid anything nasty in her diet.
I have contacted various people about this, including my GP, J&J (who make Calpol), the MHRA, and the HACSG, who have documented links to behavioural problems.
Basically everybody is pointing the finger at someone else, so it's up to us parents to kick up a fuss about this.....

The colouring in calpol isn't allowed in food and has been linked to hyperactivity. The official line is that it's only present in tiny amounts and calpol is given infrequently and in small doses so shouldn't present a problem. The colouring is to distinguish it from other medicines.

You can buy colour-free calpol if you are worried.

E122:
www.ukfoodguide.net/e122.htm

This is the whole point I am making, Sirzy! It is banned in foods, yet approved in medicines! People have a choice when it comes to food, they dont have a choice with medicines!

But sometimes things are needed which aren't ideal in order to make the medicines safe and stable.

There is a massive difference between having something in a food product which will be consumed regularly and having it in a medicinal product where the amounts will only be tiny, especially when it is something like calpol which shouldn't be used regularly. Surely you can see that difference?

I am saying I want them to stop using 'unneccessary' additives. Simple!

Out of interest do you have a full pharmaceutical background to know which of these are unnecessary or are you just guessing and going off old things you have read online?

Food is eaten daily. Medicines aren't.

I can't take the website seriously that you linked to. They obviously have an agenda and there is no suggestion that there is any research based evidence to support their claims.

There ARE choices with medicines, albeit limited ones. If you want to try and get your child to take unsweetened, untested and unregulated alternatives then go ahead.

Think about it for a minute. Why do you think that some things are banned in foods but not in medicines? It's because nobody is going to give a medicine with anything like the frequency or volume that one may consume a food. This makes sense. Lots of things serve a purpose in small doses but in larger quantities are harmless. Take apple pips for example. I bet you feed your child apples? I know I do. Did you know they contain cyanide? If you ate too many they would kill you. Or potatoes. They are a member of the deadly nightshade family and raw are extremely poisonous. Do you feed your children potatoes? Thought so. I think what is annoying about your posts is firstly the wild accusations based on clearly an inaccurate knowledge of what you are talking about. Secondly the assumption that other parents 'don't care' about what their children are consuming is offensive to say the least. And lastly, you're trying to draw attention to what- that Calpol contains trace amounts of substances which may be harmful in huge doses that nobody is ever going to ingest? Good luck with that.

No, I dont have a pharmacuetical background. I am a parent!!! And I am not the only person in the world who is unhappy about this.
The website I linked you to, is The Food Commision, they are now known as action on additives.
I'm sure they have far more of an agenda than the pharmaceutical companies?!

I surprised that you never bothered to consider this before. Do you not think that it's additives that give the medicines a shelf life, how else do you think it lasts for a year and keeps the price of children's medicine to a reasonable level. Please do tell how you would give medicines' their necessary stability and don't use shit websites to try and support your claims. It really boils my piss when people with no medical or scientific background try and support their claims by using dubious websites.

I suggest if you don't like what's in a medicine then you go down the homeopathy route oh but isn't lots of that unregulated and a crock of shit. Disclaimer I am a homeopathy disbeliever.

OP you seem to be having a hard time here, but fwiw I agree with you! Not all medicines are given infrequently, unfortunately - for example, some antibiotics have to be given long term. Yes, of course it's better to give necessary medicine, that contains additives, than not to have any medicine at all to give, but surely it would be even better to be able to give necessary medicines without harmful additives? OP, you may be intersted in the Action on Additives campaign, if you haven't come across it already.

www.actiononadditives.org/colourings

Sorry, just seen that you've already looked at them

www.telegraph.co.uk/health/children_shealth/10395491/Additives-in-Calpol-should-be-banned-due-to-hyperactivity-in-children.html

• in larger quantities are harmFUL

have you actually read that article? It is basically one group saying "ban them" but then everyone else pointing out what has already been said over and over on this thread!

I meant the UK Food Guide website that you linked to.

Overall as a parent we have to constantly perform a risk/benefit analysis. The risk of giving the medication vs the benefits it will offer.

Thank you Deputy. THANK YOU! I wish I had never posted here now. And my intentions were good, I promise you that.
I would rather spend more money, keep my medicine in the fridge etc, than give my daughter harmful additives. I would rather give her sugar than sorbitol (as in the words of may poppins, a spoonful of sugar...) Yes, I prefer to use natural/herbal remedies where possible. I also choose organic and avoid GM, I care deeply about what I give to my daughter because she depends on me, when she is older she can make her own choices.
I'm not trying to cast judgements over what parents do or dont do, I am simply trying to reach out to like minded people, that is all.

"have you actually read that article? It is basically one group saying "ban them" but then everyone else pointing out what has already been said over and over on this thread!"

'Everyone else'? J&J, Boots, MHRA? Do any of those not profit from the sales of these products?

Yes everyone else who is commenting in the article.

Surely they would make more profit if the shelf life was shorter so people had to pay more money for them more often....

Either way it simply wouldn't be allowed if it was as dangerous as you are making out in the quantities which are in actually used.

We all love our children OP. I would willingly take a bullet for any one of mine. It is with this love and passion that I too try at all times to do what is best for them. If my oldest son wakes in the night screaming with a leg ache I am going to give him Calpol because I love him and want to help him. I am not naive enough to believe scare stories and internet paranoia and certainly not daft enough to try to convince other parents what they should or shouldn't give their children based on dubious websites.

"Overall as a parent we have to constantly perform a risk/benefit analysis. The risk of giving the medication vs the benefits it will offer."

Absolutely! And sometimes we are let down by the system, and I personally feel, those risks should be kept to a minimum by the pharmaceutical companies, our job is hard enough as it is!

"This is the whole point, many of the additives banned in food products for children are found in children's medicines."

But a child is going to ingest far more of these additives if it is in a food product compared to a teaspoon or two of Calpol.

Paracetamol is very bitter. I doubt that there are many children who would willingly take it without some kind of flavouring and sweetener to mask the taste.

Next time you need some Calpol why don't you ask the pharmacist for something that is additive free.

I found an old thread with some interesting points here

"Either way it simply wouldn't be allowed if it was as dangerous as you are making out in the quantities which are in actually used."

Well, I'm glad you have such a blind faith in the system. Of course, nothing harmful would ever 'be allowed' would it?
I'm a little more cynical than that. Did you not hear about the children who died from drinking energy drinks which were 'allowed'.

There are plenty of examples of death, injury and illness from things which were 'allowed'!

It's a shame, but the world doesn't work like that. That is one thing being a parent has taught me. That is why I question everything!

You can't compare an energy drink to a medicine being given occasionally. Even an energy drink would have to be consumed in massive quantities to kill someone (unless they were allergic to an ingredient of course)

Thanks for that thread, bunbaker, I hadn't seen it. Good to know I'm not alone, and it looks, at first glance, that it had a much better reception than mine! lol

What did I say to imply that I was suggesting people not use medicines??