Hyland's Teething Tablets Warning

[Anonymous]

Someone posted this on another board I go to and I thought I would pass it along. Pretty scary!

I just wanted to share a story that came from one of our mom’s. 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. http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH…ontent#dangers

[Anonymous]

thank you for posting this, Heather. We have used the product in the past with a lot of success, (our teething days are over), but how very scary for that parent. My heart goes out to them…..

[Anonymous]

Goodness. We actually just gave Cooper his about 30 min ago. I only give it at night and usually it helps. But oddly enough we have been having 2hrs of awake time every other night for about a week now… makes me wonder. I was concerned about the Belladonna myself and now I think I will stop using these and look to something else. I am so glad that you posted this and I hope that that little one gets better fast.

[hellbennt]

I am emailing them for a response. I checked http://www.snopes.com

but didn’t come up with anything…

[Anonymous]

We’ve never used this product but thanks for the warning. I’ve thought about buying them before and didn’t. We are old school and use Orajel and Tylenol which does nothing but make me feel like I am helping him. LOL

[Anonymous]

Yikes! I use these all the time for Ben, as he has a really hard time teething. I wonder if it applies to the teething liquid as well???

[Anonymous]

OMG! I always worried about the Belladonna as well, but I trusted the product was safe. I would have never thought there could be such an extreme variation in the amount of Belladonna in each bottle and I never thought about the fact that this product is not regulated by the FDA. Really scary. Thanks for posting this.

[Anonymous]

scary!

[hellbennt]

Here is the email I received:

Dear Laura,

Thank you for your e-mail regarding Hyland’s Teething Tablets. We appreciate you sending us the information below; however, we have not received the particular complaint you refer to regarding this product.

Our #1 priority as a company, and as parents, has always been providing safe, effective healthcare to our consumers, especially the children that we serve. Our pharmacists are available 24/7 at 1-800-624-9659 to provide emergency information to consumers and the medical community. For that reason, we would also like to clarify some unfortunate misperceptions that seem to exist regarding homeopathic medicines and Hyland’s Teething Tablets. We hope the accurate information below will help you make your own choice regarding usage.

1) Homeopathic medicines are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as drugs, and have been so since 1938 (http://www.fda.gov/ora/compliance_ref/cpg/cpgdrg/cpg400-400.html). Our products are not regulated as herbs or dietary supplements. As a drug manufacturer, Hyland’s adheres to the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) Regulations promulgated by the FDA under the authority of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. “These regulations, which have the force of law, require that manufacturers…of drugs…take proactive steps to ensure that their products are safe, pure, and effective. GMP regulations require a quality approach to manufacturing, enabling companies to minimize or eliminate instances of contamination, mixups, and errors.” (http://www.gmp1st.com/gmp.htm) Hyland’s is proud of its history of safety and attention to the quality of our products. We have no basis for understanding the poster’s reference to a variance in the amount of Belladonna in each tablet.

2) In researching Belladonna, it is important to note the difference between the Belladonna in conventional drugs and homeopathically-prepared Belladonna, as included in our Teething Tablets. Extensive notes can be found on our website from our Director of Scientific Affairs, Iris Bell, MD, PhD (http://www.hylands.com/news/teethinginfo.php). However, as a brief synopsis – homeopathic Belladonna is manufactured from the whole plant, of which a small portion is Belladonna alkaloids, the component sometimes associated with side effects. Each of our Teething Tablets contains only approximately 0.0002 mg of Belladonna alkaloids (or 0.0003%). This is a very tiny amount. To put this homeopathic dosage in perspective, typically a 10-pound child would need to ingest 1,000 Hyland’s Teething Tablets to exhibit even the first possible side effect of Belladonna, dry mouth. A single flawed Tablet containing the amount of Belladonna alkaloids necessary to cause any adverse side effects would in all likelihood be brown in appearance rather than the standard chalky white.

Please feel free to contact us at 1-800-624-9659 with any concerns. More information on Hyland’s Teething Tablets is available at http://www.hylands.com or at http://www.hylandsteething.com.

We hope this information has been helpful, and look forward to being of continued service.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for looking into it Laura! It’s good to know that they are regulated by the FDA. Hopefully this child’s reaction to the product was just a freak thing and not something that will happen again.

[Anonymous]

Laura–You’re the bomb!!!

[Anonymous]

Thanks Laura!!

[Author]

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