HYLANDS WARNING on Teething Tablets

[calv]

anyone heard of this? I feel sorry and all for the mother but after speaking w/quite a few people. Doesn't seem like all the pieces match up.

any DR's in the house who could possible give us more feedback?

http://boards.babycenter.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=bcus1178&tid=37279

Anyone have an experience like this woman did w/her DS?

[GlindaGoodWitch]

WOW. That is totally scary. My sis in law had friends who used the product and recommended it to me, but after reading about the ingredients, I decided against it. I just felt funny about giving DD belladonna in ANY amount.

I'm kinda leery of so-called homeopathic remedies even for myself precisely because there is very little federal regulation of the herbs that go in them.

Thank you so much for posting that.

[bubbaray]

Can someone copy the text and post it? I can't get the link to work....

I use this product all the time.

TIA

[calv]

also wanted to add this:

http://www.hylands.com/faq/faq9.php

Wouldn't you think that if hylands was the cause of this, the Co. would do a recall? find it hard to believe that the ER tested the tablets and got such a quick turn around on the results.

[wencit]

Can someone copy the text and post it? I can't get the link to work....

I use this product all the time.

TIA
Here is the text:

I am writing this to inform you of some potential dangers with Hyland's Teething Tablets. My DH and I just returned from the ER with our 5 month old LO. Please excuse any syntactical and grammatical errors in this post as I haven't been to sleep in over 36 hours.


Prior to purchasing Hyland's, I did research and spoke to a physician about the safety. Everything I read online, including personal experiences on BC, indicated that it was safe. I was highly concerned about the Belladonna Hyland's contains. All the websites that exist reviewing the product RAVE about it. I decided to use it. We gave our LO the recommended dosage on the days that he was having a hard time teething. We NEVER gave him more than the suggested amount. He never had a problem until last night.
We purchased a new bottle to keep upstairs. We used this bottle for the first time yesterday. We gave him a dose during the early afternoon and then one at around midnight. At 1 am he began to toss and turn in his bed. He was very restless but never cried. I picked him up and offered him the breast. He refused to nurse. He didn't fuss or make a sound but was WIDE AWAKE. My DH took him downstairs to rock him and he continued to move constantly. It was like he was moving involuntarily. My DH brought him up to me again and I noticed that his pupils were dilated. He could not focus on either of us. He kept looking around. He wanted to touch every thing and was fascinated with his hands and our clothing.


He appeared to be having a petite mall seizure and exhibited other anticholinergic effects that you typically see when someone is "tripping" on LSD or other street drugs. Because he would not cry, coo, babble, smile, or anything we decided to take him to the ER. He had not slept, had a wet diaper, nor nursed in 14 hours.


I will try to keep this brief. My son experienced Belladonna poisoning from the recommended dose of Hyland's Teething tablets. The preliminary tests they did on random samples of tablets in the bottle we were using showed a variance of 50 to 1000% of belladonna. The national poison control center stated that they are seeing more and more of this and they are trying to get stores to stop carrying this product.


I have never posted a single post or thread suggesting to anyone how to raise their children. I have my opinions on many of the topics that cause controversy but I have never posted that I think you should BF or FF or Vax or anything else. I firmly believe that we are all in the best position to make informed decisions about our children's care. However, I was certain that this product was safe and it isn't.


Even if you have used it and had success does not mean that the next bottle isn't going to be toxic to your child. This product is not regulated by the FDA or any other organization so there is no way to know how much belladonna is in each tablet regardless of what the bottle says.



My son could have died if ingested any more of this product. Please take the necessary precautions. No amount of sleep for you or your child is worth the potential of going through what we just experienced.


He is still slightly out of it and isn't responding as usual but he is coming around. After flushing his system he finally wet a diaper. He is drinking enfalyte (the infant version of pedialyte). I am a EBF and very strict about not giving him anything else but it is the only thing he will take and it is the only way to get him to pee. After each diaper he wets he seems to get somewhat more like the our baby.
Please don't take this thread as anything other than a concerned parent attempting to give you information. I hesitated posting this because of all the drama that we have had on this board. I do not wish to anger or cause anyone to feel the need to debate. I respect everyone's opinion. Thank you for your time.


Here is a link that can provide you some information regarding belladonna's harmful effects.
Mary Anne
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/8513/31203/350410.html?d=dmtContent#dangers

[Davids-Coco]

Ok, that is scary. I think I may just toss all of ours... even though we have no new bottles and haven't had any issues.

[bubbaray]

!@#$#%%^ WTF? I am just SICK right now. SICK. OMG, I'm going to toss mine. I *knew* they weren't regulated (in Canada or the US), but I figured they were a reputable company and EVERYONE (and I mean EVERYONE) that I know that has little kids uses these. We jokingly call them Baby Crack b/c they work so well for my girls.

I feel sick.

[californiagirl]

I wouldn't toss anything based on one unsubstantiated Internet post. You don't know anything about this person. And if those tablets have 500 to 1000 times as much belladonna as they're supposed to? They still don't have a detectable amount!

[Marisa6826]

This is excerpted from MDC


They contain Belladonna 6X HPUS (0.0000003% Alkaloids) - for redness and inflammation.

This is what I read about it:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/d...na.html#Safety (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/patient-belladonna.html#Safety)

"At a dose of up to 1.5 milligrams in a day, belladonna is traditionally thought to be safe, but may cause frequent side effects such as dilated pupils, blushing of the skin, dry mouth, rapid heartbeat, confusion, nervousness, and hallucinations. Based on animal study, belladonna alkaloids may inhibit cognitive function and gastrointestinal motility. High doses can cause death.

In children, death can be caused by a small amount of belladonna, as low as 0.2 milligrams of one of the active ingredients, atropine, per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of the child's weight. Therefore, 2 berries of the belladonna plant can be deadly for a small child."

Hylands says that even if a child swallowed the entire bottle they should be fine, though you should probably call poison control etc.




My 3 yo once got a hold of a nearly full bottle of Hyland's teething tablets and ate them all. http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/gloomy.gif We called the poison control, and they said no worries. She could eat 3 whole bottles and not have any adverse affect from it. Indeed, she was fine; no effects whatsoever.



My DD also got a hold of a full 250 tablet bottle and eat the whole thing. I called poison control and was told not to worry. I didn't and she was fine. No big deal! I have used this on my last two and have had great results. I recommend them to EVERYONE I know that has little ones. Just remember this (not the brand, but kind of treatment) was around long before Tylenol was ever thought of.



Homeopathic medicine has very little, if any of the original substance in them. The molecular imprint is made on water molecules during the manufacturing process, and the diluted it is, the deeper it works. Ironically, the more diluted it is, the less of the original molecules of the substance there are. Homeopathy is based on vital force the premise of "like cures like".
When you use homeopathics, you are treating the state of a person (emotional, physical, mental, etc) and not usually just one symptom.

Anyway,your baby is getting very little to no belladonna in the remedies. (I think it is around 30c where there is nothing left, but I can't remember).

I recommend checking out the website www.homeopathic.org (http://www.homeopathic.org/)



There was one other post from somebody that said their EBF kid got sick but somebody else pointed out that it could've been from something the Mother had consumed.

Everything that I have ever read or have heard from people here or in Whole Foods or wherever holistic/homeopathic stuff is sold have told me again and again that Boiron or Hylands-type stuff is sooooo dilute, that by the time it gets into teething tablets, the amount of actual organic material is miniscule. We're talking teeny tiny amounts. And if the Poison Control Center is saying it's not a big deal, well, I kind of am inclined to believe them.

I'd be pretty sceptical of this one random person coming out of nowhere saying that a very well known and respected label is essentially lying about what is in their childcare product. JMO.

The point is, everybody takes risks with their child. You just need to be comfortable with whatever it is that you decide to do. Personally, teething tablets were the best thing that ever happened to our household for both kiddos. Between those and Gripe Water, we were golden.

But hey, what works for us, may not work for you.

-m

[brittone2]

I'm with Californiagirl (eta and Marisa ;) ). I wouldn't pump them into my kid today after reading this, but I also think there could be many things at play. Have they ruled out an allergic reaction? Any one ingredient in any product could cause a horrible reaction in a sensitive child. We also have no idea right now if this report is substantiated or not, or if they really tested the amount involved.

Personally, I use homeopathy periodically. Not often, but I use it. I'm far less comfortable with herbal tinctures and remedies. In comparison, homeopathy is so, so dilute that I generally feel comfortable with it for my family. If you read up on it, many medical professionals don't believe it works, but they also think it is so dilute it is extraordinarily unlikely to do any harm, vs. herbal remedies which have comparatively huge amounts of herbs in them.

If there was far, far more belladonna in there than there was supposed to be, that's a whole different issue. But based on one claim, I'm not swearing off on homeopathy forever or anything like that. I'm not a physician and can only tell you how I'm handling things on a personal level. I won't dose my kids with it for now, but I'm not swearing off of homeopathy either. I don't think I've ever even given DD the Hyland's stuff, but I used it with DS several years ago (he was much crankier while teething).

[bubbaray]

I actually have used quite a few homeopathic remedies for myself.

I spoke with DH and he was pretty calm about the whole thing. Like you all, he's skeptical about 1 isolated internet report. We don't use them all that often with DD#2 (they seemed to work better for DD#1), but at least a few times a month. Sometimes I'll give 3 (the dose) and if that d/n work within 15 min or so, I'll give her some Tylenol and the combination does the trick. I feel better about that than giving her Advil/Motrin (though my dr has OKd it).

I've tried the Boiron teething solution, but its a bit messier than the tablets. I really like Boiron stuff for myself, particularly the Oscilliocicum (sp?) antiviral stuff.

[calv]

I wouldn't toss anything based on one unsubstantiated Internet post. You don't know anything about this person. And if those tablets have 500 to 1000 times as much belladonna as they're supposed to? They still don't have a detectable amount!

ditto there is a lot of speculation. people dont even know if this story is true. a lot of pieces don't quite fit together

dont throw them out just yet. wouldn't you think there would be a recall if something so serious has happened? and why hasn't it happened to many others?

[dr mom]

I would find the story a little more plausible if there was more detail involved. Instead of "my son got sick and went to the ER and the lab said the medicine was 1000x too strong" it would be more believable to say "my son Firstname Lastname went to Hospital Name on Date and saw Dr So-and-So and the lab results were such-and-such and here is a scanned copy of the labs so that you can see for yourself."

Homeopathic remedies are manufactured in such a way that none of the original substance remains - instead, it is "imprinted" on the water molecules through a process called succussion (shaking the heck out of it and then diluting it again, and again, and again). I can't say that this story isn't within the realm of the POSSIBLE, but I don't find it very PLAUSIBLE, at least not without any confirmatory details from the author.

[GlindaGoodWitch]

Well you all have a point. I never think of myself as naive, but I suppose you shouldn't put too much weight into a post like that unless you know the person or have been posting with them long enough to establish a bit of trust.

I guess it never enters my mind that someone would make something like that up.

At any rate, I still have reservations about the tabs, but I'm one of those over-cautious types anyway. (My MIL who is a retired nurse thinks I'm a freak.) And just for the record, the pal of my SIL absolutely SWORE by them.

[bunnisa]

On this board *many* moons ago, we discussed the belladonna in Hyland's. Anyone remember? It was a good discussion.

I feel completely comfortable giving them to my children. For one, this story is suspect, because the claims don't line up with the facts. Unless the child swallowed dozens of bottles of the tablets, or had a strange and rare reaction, this is nearly impossible considering the minute amounts of belladonna they contain.

Secondly, there are many documented cases of tylenol & motrin killing children by accidental overdose, so I find those commonly accepted drugs to be of much greater concern -- but people aren't rushing out to avoid them.

Has anyone checked snopes? Baby just woke so I have to run...

[Marisa6826]

On this board *many* moons ago, we discussed the belladonna in Hyland's. Anyone remember? It was a good discussion....

Has anyone checked snopes? Baby just woke so I have to run...
Yup. Couldn't find anything on Snopes.

I do remember the old thread though. I'll try and find it, though, no promises :)

-m


ETA--

These are super old discussions. Please consider them 'archives'. I've closed them so that they're not accidently commented on and dredged forward. Thanks!


http://windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=80000&highlight=teething+tablets

http://windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=22806&highlight=teething+tablets

http://windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=87895&highlight=belladonna

[o_mom]

On this board *many* moons ago, we discussed the belladonna in Hyland's. Anyone remember? It was a good discussion.

I feel completely comfortable giving them to my children. For one, this story is suspect, because the claims don't line up with the facts. Unless the child swallowed dozens of bottles of the tablets, or had a strange and rare reaction, this is nearly impossible considering the minute amounts of belladonna they contain.



I haven't read through the entire BC thread, but the first 10 or so pages the story seems to be that the bottle she had was tested and there was a huge variation in the amount in each tablet. They were all in agreement that the amount as labeled was safe, but these particular tablets contained far more than that.

No idea if the story is true, but just clarifying.

[californiagirl]

OK, so let's assume that the report is right; the amount of belladonna might be wrong by 1000%. That's 10 times the listed amount. In fact, let's assume they meant 1000 times, instead of 10 times. Hylands lists the tablets as 0.0000003% Alkaloids, so 1000 times as much means that the tablet is 0.0003% alkaloids. That's 3 ten-thousandths of a percent. Of a teething tablet.

I haven't seen reasonable data about what might cause symptoms, but I've seen statements about fatalities down to 10mg. Let us generously estimate a tablet at a weight of a gram, and assume that you might see symptoms at 1 mg. Or, in fact, just to make the numbers easier to deal with, .3 mg, three tenths of a milligram. That would mean the tablet was 0.03% alkaloids, and Hylands was off not by 1000%, not by 1000 times, but by 100,000 times.

[randomkid]

I don't know...when I was reading that account, I thought it sounded odd. It just sounded too scientific for a lay person who just went without sleep for 36 hours and had such a frightening experience. I know if that happened to me, the post would be much more emotional. Also, it seems to me that if the child was that sick, not drinking or urinating and was "poisoned", he would be hospitalized and receiving IV fluids. Like OP said, some things just don't seem to match up.

FWIW, I did try these with DD, but they didn't seem to help her at all. She loved eating them, though!

[denna]

I may have a skewed perspective when it comes to Homeopathic medicines my MIL is a HIGHLY renowned OMD and former president of the national accupuncturist association in the greater Chicago area. She gives us nothing but homeopathic meds. and herbs for myself, DH and DS. She has been practicing for 20+ years and everything she has given us has worked 100% as it should. I was skeptic at first, but have grown to love homeopathics, herbs and all their glory. Lol.

I had her review all of the medicince we give our son (including Hyland's Tablets) and nothing alarmed her in the slightest. Not to say that something like this good happen. I just wouldnt go and throw all of my tablets away because of some random post.

[gatorruth]

We jokingly call them Baby Crack b/c they work so well for my girls.

We call it baby marijuana!! Glad my kids are done with teething.....

[lablover]

I read the entire BC thread (20+ pages) and apparently this person is a long time poster on her birth board and is a trusted member there. I read it all yesterday at work and don't remember all of the details but the child did have to be re-admitted to the hospital until he recovered fully. The poster has several additional posts later in the thread. So I believe that the incident is not a hoax and did really happen. Why it happened still has me confused. And I just started taking my DD to a classical homeopath (a highly regarded one) to help with some issues that she has so this makes me a tad nervous, but I'm hoping it was just a rare fluke with the Hyland's tablets (which I've given to both my kids in the past with no ill effects.)

[writermama]

Just speculating here, but I wonder if her child had some other neurological problem (seizure-type episode) and it was just a cooincidence that it occured at the same time as the teething tablet use. Then the hospital docs jumped on the tablets as a culprit simply because they're unfamiliar with homeopathy.

Of course, it's also possible that hylands had a major quality control failure and sent out a bad batch.

I won't toss my tablets quite yet, but I will watch closely for recalls.

My bias: I use homeopathy for myself and my kids. For the kids, I belive it works on the placebo effect, but, hey, it works. And oddly, it works for me even though I don't really believe in it. I am cautious about liver damage associated with Tylenol and GI damage from Motrin, though I use both on occasion. I don't know enough about herbs to know what to buy and worry about contaminants and strength variations. No remedy is without risks, but for all I have read, homeopathy's greatest risk is that it simply won't work.

[klwa]

Don't know how common it is, but our pediatrician warned us not to use the teething tablets because this sort of thing COULD happen. Not does. But Could.

[brittone2]

Don't know how common it is, but our pediatrician warned us not to use the teething tablets because this sort of thing COULD happen. Not does. But Could.

nak-
not trying to be argumentative, but how many physicians adequately warn their patients about the dangers of Tylenol and Motrin, or the off label use of children's cold medications?

[purpleeyes]

nak-
not trying to be argumentative, but how many physicians adequately warn their patients about the dangers of Tylenol and Motrin, or the off label use of children's cold medications?


My ped. has, imo, esp. since we've had a ton of sinus problems with DD.
When DS was teething, she warned us about Hylands as well. Its just too scary for me, why risk it?

[brittone2]

My ped. has, imo, esp. since we've had a ton of sinus problems with DD.
When DS was teething, she warned us about Hylands as well. Its just too scary for me, why risk it?


Yeah, I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but I think your ped may be in the minority. There are risks to every decision we make for our kids. I just am continually amazed at people that think nothing of pumping Tylenol or Motrin into their kid over and over and over again for things like teething (so ongoing use). We all do our best to minimize risks to our kids the best we can in our own families. I have no idea what's going on officially w/ the Hylands stuff. But homeopathy, for me, is less worrisome than what a lot of people put into their kids daily without much thought (Tylenol, Motrin, etc.)

I have no idea what the official deal is w/ the Hylands incident. I wish we knew more. I guess I still have a feeling that there *may* have been something else unique about this particular child. A seizure of some sort that happened to coincide w/ the tablet use, etc., kwim? Maybe that isn't the case, but for now I'm trying to reserve judgment. Hopefully we'll eventually get more info so we can all be better decision-makers.

[JoyNChrist]

Not sure how I feel about this...we've tried Hyland's with DS, but they never seemed to help, so we threw out the bottle. So I guess I'm just not going to worry about it.

[himom]

nak-
not trying to be argumentative, but how many physicians adequately warn their patients about the dangers of Tylenol and Motrin, or the off label use of children's cold medications?

Mine has.

But beyond that point, I guess peds might not be as vigilant at warning about these products because time and experience have shown that there is absolutely no danger as long as the directions are strictly followed. Whereas (apparently) with the Hylands, there have been issues even when parents follow the directions exactly.

I'm not an authority on this issue, but it seems like the issue with Hylands is there is no control over exactly what composes the product?

[writermama]

I asked Hylands about complaints or recalls. They responded that they have recieved no customer complaints related to such an incident. Furthermore, they ARE regulated by the FDA.

I'm drawing no conclusions yet, but this is what they say.

Excerpt from the email below:

To help address your concerns, the Teething Tablets have been safely used by millions of children since being introduced in the U.S. market in 1945! From time to time, we do receive inquiries regarding the safety of Belladonna. The issue here is the way in which Belladonna is prepared. Belladonna is used both as a conventional medicine and a homeopathic medicine.

As a homeopathic medicine, Belladonna is made from the whole plant, which, unlike conventional medicine, is then diluted to 1 part per 1000 in the preparation of the Teething Tablets, resulting in a homeopathic potency of 3X HPUS. The manufacturing process for homeopathic Belladonna is regulated by the FDA and precisely detailed in a monograph in the HPUS (Homeopathic Pharmacopeia of the United States). Prepared this way, only 0.0003% of the tablet is the toxic Belladonna alkaloids (this is stated on the label). The 3-step dilution process of the Belladonna plant creates a very large margin of safety for the Teething Tablets, as a 10-pound child would need to ingest 6 full bottles of 125 tablets before possibly seeing the first side effect of dry mouth.

[klwa]

nak-
not trying to be argumentative, but how many physicians adequately warn their patients about the dangers of Tylenol and Motrin, or the off label use of children's cold medications?

Have to agree with the PP. Mine has gone through the dangers of overdose, etc pretty well.