The cough medicine scam - and yet more rubbish from the BBC
The Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has ordered six products be permanently removed from sale for children aged under two.
So now we are going to have to struggle through without Asda Children's Chesty Cough Syrup, Calcough Chesty and Boots Chesty Cough Syrup - one year plus, Children's Chesty Cough and Boots sore throat and cough linctus one year plus and Buttercup infant cough syrup.
"But doctor, it’s got buttercups in it, so it must be safe"Why do we not go the whole hog and remove all children’s cough medicine from the shelves? And then all the adult cough medicine as well. Are they all dangerous? Not at all. They are crap. Overpriced crap. They do not do anything. Don’t waste your money.
"Ah but madam maybe the moo-cow pooed on the butterup."
Also, hilariously, the BBC has been doctoring this article by the hour. The original version was riddled with inaccuracies and full of all the usual scaremongering tosh.
I cannot be bothered to go through all the changes the BBC has made. Fortunately, the wonderful Revisionista have already done all the work and are currently showing, side by side, all eleven versions (yes, ELEVEN) of the article. Take a look here.Finally, a little note on the claim that you should not give honey to children under one year. If you do, they might get botulism. You can believe that if you want. Personally, I find the idea that Sebastian and Candida might have poisoned dear little Chloe by feeding her on yak's milk and honey too delicious for words. I came across this lovely article in which a natural food-freak parent discusses the problem with a natural food-freak doctor. Enjoy.
Labels: biased bbc, cough medicine, honey
29 Comments:
The Revisionista link should be:
http://www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/109950/diff/11/12
and could you now as a DR discuss the full implications of the stress of a sick child and no help and tell people what they could now doOR do you give unhelpful advice too or wold you like other GP's who refuse to see a coughing child who ends up in ICU on a ventilator a few hours later [when his distraught over anxious parents decided to ignore the GP who said there was nothing wrong whatsoever and he would live without a home visit] to A&E .
Perhaps cough medicines are a waste of time..........so what I ask is a parent to do if they are worried about their sick child? A more helpful post would ahve included this..........or maybe that is only from a Dr and not a person who likes to complain about what others say? I have no idea what to make of it whatsoever!
I hated cough syrup when I was a kid. I am still not sure what the red stuff was supposed to taste like. I much preferred my mother's honey (!!OMG!1!!) and lemon. Why people buy Lemsip when they could bung slice of lemon and a teaspoon of honey in a cup with hot water and take two paracetamol, I do not know.
But even so... is this really right? The use of these medicines has been restricted because there have been five deaths of children - since 1981 - in which cough medicines may have been a factor?
I'm with the doc on this one. There is no place in treating coughs in children for coloured water, sugar, antihistamines or opiates. A cough in a child is often distressing for all involved, but along with other symptoms of viral illness, it will clear up by itself.
Spend your money on nicotine patches instead - this will be far more beneficial in preventing coughing in kids.
So, Dr. Crippen, what's this all about?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/coventry_warwickshire/7315531.stm
......arf
I don't know if that came through right, try this link:
http://tinyurl.com/3bhocs
.........arf
If I remember correctly there is some evidence for Guaiphenisin. JJust out of interest thats all.
But mainly, they are shite for the worried well.
Just wondering, do they still make paregoric? In the USA, it was camphorated tincture of opium.
Wanting to be a doctor since childhood, I do remember reading the labels on the medicines our doctor prescribed even as a little kid. I seem to remember getting that for some illness or other. A cough, diarrhea, something like that.
........arf
apologies for the bad link to Revisionista
now corrected
John
and could you now as a DR discuss the full implications of the stress of a sick child and no help and tell people what they could now doOR do you give unhelpful advice too or wold you like other GP's who refuse to see a coughing child who ends up in ICU on a ventilator a few hours later [when his distraught over anxious parents decided to ignore the GP who said there was nothing wrong whatsoever and he would live without a home visit] to A&E .
++++++
Phew! Well, you obviously had some sore of bad experience but, whatever happened, I can assure you that inserting cough medicine into it would not have helped.
Most of this stuff is junk
John
Arf
Your query on the article. This is the referrence
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/coventry_warwickshire/7315531.stm
in answer to your question, it is about some slobby doctor who beat someone up in a pub brawl.
I suspect you really mean, "why wasn't he struck off?"
The GMC only usually strikes doctors off for having sex with patients!
John
It was always good old Vicks rub for me or those vapours on a hanky. All my children hated medicine anyway so there would be no placebo effect taking place. It's hard to convince a child that the stuff is good for them when you have to hold them down and pinch their nose. Unless of course it's antibiotics. Then, YOU know it's doing them good.
Personally I am amazed that at 12 months old we suddenly develop a mysterious (obviously homeopathic) immunity to Botulinus toxin. If you get if from honey, I better rush now to burn the Tesco's squeezy bottle we use for making sauces.
Did you know that in many countries parents buy bottles containing the active ingredients found in sedating cough medicines to induce sleep in babies? Highly dangerous practice!
Did you know that in many countries parents buy bottles containing the active ingredients found in sedating cough medicines to induce sleep in babies? Highly dangerous practice
++++++
Not just in the in "many countries".
I find the popularity of Medised over Calpol frightening.
Parents use it to dope up their toddlers.
John
Aah toddlers - worthy recipients of the chemical cosh if my two are anything to go by.
"Not just in the in "many countries".
I find the popularity of Medised over Calpol frightening.
Parents use it to dope up their toddlers."
Ah yes...I remember some doctors allegedly using this stuff to keep their kids quiet while they sloped off for a meal somewhere in Portugal.
Two quick comments:
1. My chemist has for years told everyone who comes in that "wants something for a cough" that the stuff is pants.
2. I sadly know lots of parents who when they want to go out for a "session", knock their toddlers out so they won't wake up when they are out. Don't get me wrong -they get a baby sitter. But- I also know folks who dose their children up night after night with something like Calpol " to help them sleep".
It's beyond me.
What's this tosh about a health risk associated with honey? The joy of pure honey is you can keep it for a couple of thousand years, and whilst it may solidify, it doesn't degrade and remains edible...
The potential hazard of sweet stuff to young teeth may well be a separate issue, but botulism? Crap and cobblers...
but aren't we forgetting the power of the placebo?
My father was a pharmacist and I remember one night as a child begging him to give me something for my terrible cough and he, with an exhibition of reluctance and a display of extreme care in measuring an exact dose, gave me what I learnt the next morning was syrup BP coloured with a violet dye. I slept like a log.
Up until the early 1970s he was still getting prescriptions to dispense saying
"Mist ADT, 1 tsp tds, 150 mls"
Where ADT meant "Any Damned Thing".
On a philosophical note cough bottles (like NHS Dire, WICs and extended GP hours) are another way of medicalising society, and disempowering individuals and their families. "You are only well if a professional deems you to be well, your minor complaint is only minor if deemed so by a professional" See Medical Nemesis by Ivan Illich
but aren't we forgetting the power of the placebo?
if my mother thought she wouldn't sleep, she took two paracetamol. I never saw the results but my brother did once. She went out, he said, like a light... .
I doubt any medic told her they'd work but I bet they also didn't disillusion her.
"You are only well if a professional deems you to be well, your minor complaint is only minor if deemed so by a professional"
Yes -- a real problem. Perhaps some doctors should understand that that's why some patients present 'inappropriately'.
We used Medised for a while but it seemed to make our daughter's cough eveb worse. We've given up on cough medicine. If she can't sleep for coughing, the children's ibuprofen works best. Whether this is 'dosing up a toddler', I don't know...
As an aside, I'd be interested to know if paracetamol and ibuprofen are similar safety-wise. With the smaller doses and the advice to take it less frequently, I'd always been more wary of ibuprofen but I've recently read such terrible things about paracetamol that I wonder whether I should give it to a three year old at all.
What about Pholcodine (?spelling?), does that have any merit, it thought it was a cough suppresent or something? (and i am sure a doctor told me that).
Gentleben
Re NI GP's comment:
After Jr Aust (aged 18 months or so) had infant paracetamol for a high fever, she went through a phase of demanding "sticky medicine" or similar whenever she felt a little below-par.
Mrs Dr Aust (battle-hardened ex-general medic) and I found that a childrens' vitamin syrup of similar stickiness and lurid colour worked a treat.
I always remember this when some birdbrained homeopath starts telling me that "homeopathy can't all be placebo effect because it works on small children."
If you anesthetize a patient to surgical anesthesia. Say you don't choose to paralyze the patient. Do mask ventilation for, say, a foot surgery. Then manipulate the airway. Put down a flexible suction catheter and clear out some secretions. Maybe you tickle the carina with the catheter.
The patient will cough. The surgeon, drilling bone on the foot without a response, will now notice a little movement and wonder if everything's OK.
So you've got this drug-induced coma (hopefully a reversible drug-induced coma) and yet the patient still coughs. I doubt you're really suppressing cough very much with a little codeine or hydrocodone or tincture of opium.
Mostly you're making the repeated coughing hurt a little less, maybe allowing the patient to sleep, and I suppose maybe some small decrease in frequency of coughing, though I don't know if it's ever been measured.
........arf
What is wrong with a good placebo. It cheers parent and lets the child know that the parents are not helpless.
And i rember the prestige of taking cough lollies qith me to school for the teacher to dish out to me.
And this was in WW2 - and we won.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4451308a11.html
Good Job! :)
希望大家都會非常非常幸福~
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