Is Tylenol Harming Your Child?

For the first time ever, makers of the nation’s most popular pain reliever will tell parents through labels and advertising that too much Tylenol can harm their children. Liver damage and even death has been blamed on relatively small overdoses of acetaminophen - Tylenol’s active ingredient.

At fourteen months Sophie was accidentally overdosed because her parents and physician were unaware that grape flavored Infant Tylenol is 3 ½ times stronger than Children’s Tylenol. Sophie recently underwent a partial liver transplant.

The changes in label warnings were too late for 5 year old Lacy, an award winning baton twirler from Louisiana, who died from liver damage after her mother accidentally overdosed her with Extra Strength Tylenol. Overdoses are easy for several reasons. It comes in kid pleasing flavors and is marketed as a SAFE alternative to aspirin. Giving a child as little as twice the proper dose over time could destroy his/her liver. Children like the taste and often sneak an extra swig, or Mom doesn’t know Dad just gave the baby Tylenol and administers a second dose. As you can see, it would not be too difficult to begin that process of damaging the liver.

The American Association of Poison Control Centers reports 31,511 children under the age of six suffered inappropriate exposure to pediatric acetaminophen in 1996. A majority of the public think that acetaminophen is a harmless chemical and they don’t think twice about using it four or five times a day for a very minor fever. San Francisco pediatrician, John Bolton, tested parents and staff in his own office by asking them to choose which was stronger, Infant, or Children’s Tylenol. “Almost everyone handed me the wrong one” Bolton said.

The next question we must ask ourselves is; “Why are so many children taking such a harmful drug?” Dr. Mendelson, a pediatrician, wrote a bestseller, “How To Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor.” It states that the body’s natural response to many normal childhood illnesses is interfered with by well meaning parents who just don’t know what to do. For example, a fever is a normal response to a body fighting an infection. Unfortunately, one of the first things we do in response to a fever is bring it down with drugs.

Of course, the $5 billion per year being spent by pharmaceutical companies to advertise Tylenol and other chemicals makes it difficult to know right from HARMFUL. Chemicals interfere with the body’s immune system and can lead to stress in the body. Stresses, be they chemical, physical, or mental, result in interference of the nervous system.

The human nervous system controls and coordinates the body’s immune system, which consists of the spleen, thymus, tonsils and white blood cells. When the body shows signs of dis-ease or a lack of what we perceive as health, there is a natural response that occurs to correct or restore normal balance. The process occurs as long as we have good communication between the nerve system and the immune system. This information travels along the nerves from the brain to the body and back again. Interference results from trauma, stress and chemicals or drugs such as Tylenol.