Calpol or Not Calpol, That IS the Question? Part 2

The season of flu (and fear of swine flu) is upon us. But before you reach for this sticky pink cocktail dished out by doctors and parents as a cure-all for children, think again…

 

 

Many doctors will tell you that at least 95 per cent of childhood illnesses are self limiting. In other words they will heal by themselves and do not require any medical intervention. Of course prevention is an important part of health care, but just-in-case medicine, given without any clinical basis, can make symptoms worse and produce a whole range of new and even more debilitating side effects.

Good examples of this idea abound in our approach to common experiences such as fever, earache and coughs.

Fever often develops during an infection. Although we generally think of fever as a bad thing, fever enhances the inflammatory response of the body, and certain components of the immune system work optimally at increased body temperature. Also fever helps to limit the growth of some germs that cannot grow well at higher temperatures.

Suppressing fever with medicines like Calpol interferes with this essential mechanism.

For children, fever can serve another important function. Our children are not born with mature immune systems and fever is one way of activating and ‘educating’ the immune system to respond when needed. Because of this, temperatures up to 39 C (102 F) don’t usually provide sufficient grounds for action unless your child is prone to convulsions.

There is even research to show that warm sponging can be just as effective at reducing skin temperature as paracetamol.

Other ingredients

Calpol of course doesn’t just contain paracetamol. It is a veritable cocktail of sweeteners, flavourings, preservatives and colourants to make the product appealing and palatable to infants. These additives include strawberry ‘flavouring’ and carmoisine (E122- suspected carcinogen, banned in Austria, Japan, Norway, Sweden and the US) to produce its pink colour.

It also contains, Maltitol (a mild laxative), glycerol (E422 – large quantities can cause headaches, thirst and nausea), sorbitol (E420 – large quantities can cause stomach upset), the paraben preservatives methyl parahydroxybenzoate (E218 – suspected hormone disrupter and allergen), propyl parahydroxybenzoate (E216 – suspected hormone disrupter and allergen), ethyl parahydroxybenzoate (E214 – suspected hormone disrupter, banned in France and Australia), and a thickener xanthan gum (E415 – no known adverse effects).

Being such an interesting E-cocktail, it’s not surprising that it can cause allergic reactions (such as skin rashes and hayfever-like symptoms), tiredness, unexpected bleeding or tendency towards bruising as well as headache, nausea.

Using paracetamol to treat fever may also result in your child having a seemingly endless round of colds, since the body’s natural fever reaction was not allowed to kill the virus causing the illness leaving your child to be reinfected again and again.

E122 and E218 can lead to hyperactivity, and the Hyperactive Children’s Support Group identifies them as likely causes of mysterious and sudden cases of ADHD-like hyper-activity.

Is neurofen better?

So is Calprofen, the childrens’ neurofen suspension, a better option? Not really. The manufacturers of Nurofen, the UK’s best selling adult ibuprofen, list the following adverse effects in their packaging:
Stomach discomfort or pain, nausea, stomach ulcer with or without bleeding, black tarry stools, worsening of asthma, unexplained wheezing or shortness of breath, liver and kidney problems, headache, dizziness, hearing disturbance and rarely skin rash, itching, peeling, easy bruising and facial swelling.

Putting it in a lower dose in a sweet syrup, with a reassuring picture of a happy baby on the packaging, may not be enough to protect your child from such effects. In fact in the US concern was heightened in 2003 when an 11 year old girl developed Stevens Johnson Syndrome – a devastating inflammatory disease that can result in serious gastrointestinal problems, blindness and death – soon after being given a children’s ibuprofen for a mild fever.

In 2008 a jury decided, bizarrely, that although manufacturers Johnson & Johnson failed to adequately warn of risks of contracting Stevens-Johnson syndrome on the label, this lack of adequate warning did not make the manufacturers liable for the girl’s blindness.

Nevertheless the Stevens Johnson syndrome foundation still insists that the number of reported cases of ibuprofen-related SJS has risen in recent years.

Watch and wait

The medical model of care is action oriented. It pursues germs and suppresses symptoms with single-minded determination. When learning how to take care of their children, parents are encouraged to take this model on board.

The idea of ‘watch and wait’ caring is still not widely encouraged. Not surprisingly, when faced with the combination of medical opposition to a watch and wait approach and the blind panic whipped up by the media about things like swine flu, many parents end up toeing the line. Calpol is dispensed and all is right with the world – until of course it isn’t.

To be health conscious is to understand that there is always ‘something going around’ which is ‘probably a virus’. There are viruses and bacteria in us and around us all the time.

The virus that causes flu or measles may be inside you or your children right now. But you are not ill because your immune system is working efficiently. What makes your child susceptible to these things – allergies, run-down immune system, diet, sleep, emotional distress – is the real question and all play a part in susceptibility to infection and in the course of healing.

Addressing these things first, before you reach for the Calpol, is the most important part of prevention and combined with cuddles, kisses and patience is probably the best way to ensure the speedy recovery of a child with a cold.

by Pat Thomas