FYI- warning about hylands teething tablets

[nancy drew]

mods, i hope its ok to link to a post on another message board. if not please let me know how to inform others about this issue.

this was linked on another message board i visit, and i think its quite important to read. from reading replies on the board i visit (not the board that is linked) it seems other babies have had similar reactions, though not as severe. my understanding is that since homeopathic medicine is not regulated by the fda, the strength of the ingredients can vary widely, which is why some bottles of the tablets might be ok and some might cause these reactions (hallucinations, etc). the ingredient in questions (belladonna) is a hallucinogen, though usually the amount in hylands is small enough that it doesnt cause problems. if that batch of tablets gets too much belladonna, well, this is a possible result. also, from further reading, if a baby has allergies to certain types of foods (potatoes, eggplants, or peppers) the baby will have a more severe reaction to belladonna.

fwiw, the person who wrote this original post is a lawyer, and is probably going to take action.

read here for more (http://boards.babycenter.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=bcus1178&tid=37279)

and for more info on belladonna, read here (http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/8513/31203/350410.html?d=dmtContent#dangers).

[emschwar]

OMG! How scary! We definitely won't be using those again!

[mommycal]

OMG, have you read the entire thread? Good gawd, the drama. :eek: I've got a ton more reading left to do on it but I'd be curious to see what Hylands had to see. Their webpage claims that homeopathic meds are regulated. Very interesting.

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

Thanks for sharing this!!!

[JustVita]

Thanks nancy drew for posting this. I've fortunately not had any adverse reactions that I've noticed when giving these in the past, but will definitely NOT use them in the future.

[kindermom]

Wow. I just threw mine out. It is too bad because DS liked them. But there is no way I am taking the chance.

[nancy drew]

i havent read all the comments on that thread, but i have read some on the board where i saw this and some other moms had noticed weird reactions from their kids too, such as dilated pupils, waking in the night in total silence, just staring at things, not making any sounds at all, etc. and one mom said hylands made her baby act drunk.

[daphne]

I recommended these to a friend several months ago. When I told her about this posting, she mentioned that her son just laid in bed for about an hour, staring at the ceiling, after she gave him the tablets last night. :o I feel awful about recommending them to her. Guess I'll be tossing mine, too!

[ihearttx]

Wow. I've never had any problems with them. That is pretty bizarre. Our ped even said they were safe.

[1_mommy]

a couple months ago, my ds who is 2, got into a diaper bag from a little boy i babysit, pulled out a bottle of teething tablets, and proceeded to eat the entire bottle (i think there was about 1/2 in there, so he ate 1/2 a bottle)
i freaked out when i saw him with the empty bottle and when i asked him where they were, he opened his mouth and pointed down his throat!

I immedietly called posion control, where the man told me that they are harmless, and they get many calls a day. In fact, he told me he thinks they are pointless, and don't work at all.
I didn't really see any side affects, my ds is very active anyways, so i don't know if i would have noticed a huge difference.

That is really scary about the womans son. I used to reccomend these to my friends, don't think i will be doing that anymore

[ellidew]

Our ped said not to use teething tablets because they numb the entire mouth thus making a choking hazard. We've never used anything. The ped recommended the orajel swabs with meds already in the stick to localize the use of the numbing agent.

[mommycal]

Our ped said not to use teething tablets because they numb the entire mouth thus making a choking hazard. We've never used anything. The ped recommended the orajel swabs with meds already in the stick to localize the use of the numbing agent.


interesting! i've tried the hylands and they dont seem to numb, orajel on the other hand I was told by several DRs to avoid for the reasons you menioned, their mouth and tounge becomes numb hence the chocking hazzard.

[nancy drew]

a couple months ago, my ds who is 2, got into a diaper bag from a little boy i babysit, pulled out a bottle of teething tablets, and proceeded to eat the entire bottle (i think there was about 1/2 in there, so he ate 1/2 a bottle)
i freaked out when i saw him with the empty bottle and when i asked him where they were, he opened his mouth and pointed down his throat!

I immedietly called posion control, where the man told me that they are harmless, and they get many calls a day. In fact, he told me he thinks they are pointless, and don't work at all.
I didn't really see any side affects, my ds is very active anyways, so i don't know if i would have noticed a huge difference.

That is really scary about the womans son. I used to reccomend these to my friends, don't think i will be doing that anymore

thats the thing, one bottle might be fine for your son. but for sally othermom's son, one tablet could have the effects described here because maybe he is allergic to something and that causes a reaction to them, or maybe the batch that his mom bought was accidentally made with stronger belladonna or something. from what i can gather, there is no regulation in homeopathic medicine, so its kind of a crapshoot when you buy it. thats my understanding, based on what others have said.

fwiw, i tried them with dd when i thought she was teething and they didnt have any noticeable effect on her, and didnt seem to calm her down at all, so i tossed them. i didnt bother trying them with ds.

[mommydearest]

Thanks for posting this. I tried them once or twice, but didn't think they did much and DH was against me using them since they aren't FDA approved. I just threw ours out and won't be getting any more.

[LRL]

OMG. How scary! :eek: As with any unregulated drug, I guess you really need to use good judgement when deciding whether or not to use them. Around here, there are loud warnings about using homeopathic medications purchased in the various ethnic markets mainly because of the potential of large amounts of lead in these products.

:: And I of course listen.. :p:: I bought Highlands for DS, but DH refused to let me use them on him. We never even opened the bottle- I am going to throw them out tonight.

Thank goodness the posters son does not seem to have any long term side effects.

[Bucktown]

Wow! I gave them to my now 3 y/o when he was teething, then called the ped after giving them to him and they said to stop immediately because of the bella donna in them. They scared the crap outta me enough not to give him anymore.

[BeachBum]

How interesting.
My ped suggested we buy belladonna (a child strength dose) to give to DS after vax to help with inflammation and fevers.
I had no idea it could be so harmful.

[miaclear]

Wow....I'm amazed at all the different "ped recommendations". Ours never mentioned Hylands but said orajel was pointless, it would numb it for a bit but it doesn't last that long and him swallowing the contents of it wasn't worth the few minutes of relief. He told us to use Tylenol. Fortunately DS never was really too fussy during teething.

[allyray231]

Wow that is crazy! I used to use them with not 2 1/2 year old DS (but not till he was much older) and never seemd to have issues. I will make sure I toss mine.

[steelcitymama]

thanks for posting---how scary! we have these and have used them in the past with no real success so we stopped. however, we DO have the hyland's gel (like orajel) and have had better luck with that. i assume the belladonna in that form would pose the same potential risks???

[Soulmate]

I would agree that it is not just Hyland's. I used to use the liquid kind but I can't remember the brand. I stopped using them when they worked a little *too* well and DS liked it a little *too* much. I saw that it had belladonna in it and knew that it used to be used as a drug back in the day. I tossed it and used Tylenol instead.

Just as an FYI, women used to use belladonna to make their pupils dilate which would make them appear prettier (weird but dilated pupils = attractiveness is scientifically supported). Turns out their pupils dilated because they were high :rolleyes:

ETA: here is a link to belladonna on wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belladonna_%28plant%29). I was wrong that their pupils were dilated because they were high. Apparently it is just a side effect.

[chefker]

I would like to find out if this is the first time this type of reaction has ever occurred in an infant (from taking the Hyland's tablets), or what. I'm afraid this will give homeopathic medicine a bad rap, which is not entirely deserved, IMO. I go to a naturopathic physician, and found homeopathic medicine to be the answer for my sinus problems. What I like about homeopathic medicine, is that you experience no side effects. Obviously, if this child truly had belladonna poisoning from the tablets...well, that's of course quite scary! And way beyond a 'side effect.'

Now...as to my DS, I don't know as I'll be giving him the tablets again based on a message board anecdote. Granted, he's never had a reaction to them - the few times I've given them to him, they do seem to have helped. For me though, I don't like the idea of giving him Motrin or Tylenol for teething pain, either. Those medicines are not without side effects, either, and I simply prefer to use natural ways of dealing with pain, whenever possible.

I would bet anything, if this poisoning story is true, that maybe there was some kind of manufacturing problem with the tablets themselves. Which can honestly happen with ANY medicine, traditional or not. I'm just really surprised that this hasn't made any major news outlets...a quick google search of 'Hyland's teething tablets + poisoining' only reveals anecdotal evidence. I want cold, hard facts (and not from Hyland's, either - obviously they'd be a bit biased!) What does the FDA have to say about this, if anything?

[catmom]

I never had any problems with them, but they never did a thing for my DD, either. I'll be interested to hear if the hospital involved in the other thread makes this public.

[emschwar]

In case anyone is interested, after some googling, I found out that Gentle Naturals makes a homeopathic teething product that does not have belladonna in it. Target carries the brand. Our target had a shelf tag for the teething stuff yesterday, but none of the actual product.

[nancy drew]

I would like to find out if this is the first time this type of reaction has ever occurred in an infant (from taking the Hyland's tablets), or what. I'm afraid this will give homeopathic medicine a bad rap, which is not entirely deserved, IMO. I go to a naturopathic physician, and found homeopathic medicine to be the answer for my sinus problems. What I like about homeopathic medicine, is that you experience no side effects. Obviously, if this child truly had belladonna poisoning from the tablets...well, that's of course quite scary! And way beyond a 'side effect.'

Now...as to my DS, I don't know as I'll be giving him the tablets again based on a message board anecdote. Granted, he's never had a reaction to them - the few times I've given them to him, they do seem to have helped. For me though, I don't like the idea of giving him Motrin or Tylenol for teething pain, either. Those medicines are not without side effects, either, and I simply prefer to use natural ways of dealing with pain, whenever possible.

I would bet anything, if this poisoning story is true, that maybe there was some kind of manufacturing problem with the tablets themselves. Which can honestly happen with ANY medicine, traditional or not. I'm just really surprised that this hasn't made any major news outlets...a quick google search of 'Hyland's teething tablets + poisoining' only reveals anecdotal evidence. I want cold, hard facts (and not from Hyland's, either - obviously they'd be a bit biased!) What does the FDA have to say about this, if anything?

from what i read on the board where someone linked to the original post, i guess the mom involved in this is a lawyer and she is gathering whatever is needed to make a case out of this. who knows where it will go, if anywhere. i too will be interested in finding out the results.

ive tried homeopathic medicine for my allergies and it didnt do anything to help. so im not really supportive of the whole concept. but im not one to take regular medications either, unless its a dire emergency.

[Mandos*Bella]

My ped. just recc'd this, too! :eek:

[Marisa]

I just googled for some real articles and still the only thing that comes up is more message boards with this woman's original post copied as a warning.

The concentration of belladonna is very very small -- miniscule really -- in the Hyland's tablets, and even taking a whole bottle should not be enough to cause an overdose in a child. However, if you are concerned, there are other homeopathic remedies that omit the belladonna -- this one was recommended on Mothering's message boards recently:

http://www.homeopathyworks.com/product.php?xProd=5550

There is no more updated info on Hyland's official site, either -- simply a press release stating that they've been alerted to the internet post, but have no more information -- since this incident was over four months ago you'd think there'd at least be *something*.

http://www.hylands.com/news/teethinginfo.php

[emschwar]

We recently tried Boiron Camilia for teething. It has no belladonna, and boy, it works much better than hylands, in our experience anyway.

[Mandos*Bella]

Thanks, emschwar. May have to give it a go.

[kmack]

can someone post the original link? b/c it's not opening for me

this is really scary though, i just found my bottle of hylands and was considering giving them to DS just today. i am too scared to chance it now!

[Marisa]

It looks like the original post has been deleted from Babycenter, so I did a little googling and found a few other message boards where it was copied and pasted.

This one quotes the original post in the first post in the thread, but scroll down and read the letter from Hylands, received by a mom who wrote to them in reference to this complaint.

http://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=10669

I think it's interesting that the letter from Hylands states that "we have not received the particular complaint you refer to regarding this product." They also say homeopathic remedies have been regulated by the FDA since 1938, and that if a tablet were to accidentally have enough belladonna to cause side effects, it would also cause the tablet to be a brown color instead of the standard white.


I know that no one asked me, but based on the fact that almost a year has gone by and there's no followup at all... this may be some internet hysteria at work.

[liz08]

From what I have read, Hylands and Boiron are both regulated brands of homeopathic remedies, and both of their products are very, very safe. Homeopathic remedies use a minuscule amount of all ingredients in their products I believe....from what I understand they are extremely diluted, and some of the ingredients actually are small enough to not have to even be listed. I don't really understand how they work, but they do. I love Hylands Teething Tablets, and will continue to use them because I am sure if they were unsafe it would be well-documented and would be pulled of the shelves of major retailers. They worked well for my dd and I believe them to be safer than Orajel (which can be a choking issue and latching on issue due to numbness in the mouth), and Tylenol (which has many serious long-term side effects....not to mention that it masks symptoms if there really is something else wrong with your baby).

[IrishEyes]

Regulation of homeopathic drugs is different than prescription/OTC drugs. Link (http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/096_home.html)here.

Some excerpts:
Their products are exempt from good manufacturing practice requirements related to expiration dating and from finished product testing for identity and strength.


Another difference involves alcohol. Conventional drugs for adults can contain no more than 10 percent alcohol, and the amount is even less for children's medications. But some homeopathic products contain much higher amounts because the agency has temporarily exempted these products from the alcohol limit rules.

Manufacturers of homeopathic drugs must register and list with the FDA, but the drugs are not reviewed (as in, information and data about the drug, its safety and effectiveness and its manufacturing are not reviewed by the FDA before allowing the drug to be marketed). They must follow certain labeling regulations. I am unsure about whether the manufacturing facilities are usually inspected (and if they are, how often).

These tablets may work. I just wanted to urge caution in how one may think they are regulated.