TuscMoms.com

Hey guys-
I just read this post on a Baby Center bulletin board....I just orderd these online for Ben last week! Scary stuff....
Angie


"My apologies if I'm repeating this thread but this issue is serious and I think we need to spread the word. This happened to one of our Jul07 mommies and it's important that everyone be warned of the potential danger. I'm pasting her post.

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/WSIHW000/8513/3120...d=dmtContent#dangers

Wow. That's scary.
I just fished my bottle of "Humphrey's 100% Natural Teething Pellets" out of Jack's medicine basket and it also contains Belladonna.
We have used these a lot and Jack has been fine. And I liked it that I didn't have to give him Tylenol all the time.
Hmmmmmmm. I'm going to ask my pedi about this. Thanks.

Wow. Thanks for passing that on. I'm going to investigate a bit further myself.

We have always used Hylands without problem, and SUPPOSEDLY your child could ingest an entire bottle without ever getting enough belladonna to do any harm.

If true, this is very scary.

We are told to use Tylenol and all of these medications, then told to use natural or home remedies because they are better for our childrens system. Now those home remedies might not be so good?!. What am I too do? I don't have the time to research anything, let alone whether this is true or not. I barely sleep. I can only find the time to cook maybe two or three times a week. So computer research is definitly not going to make the to-do list anytime soon.

It is soooo frustrating that everything we are told to do for our children is proven to be wrong and even harmful 2 or 3 years later by a new scientific study. Is it just me, or is anyone else tired of companies pumping out all of these gadgets and medications, just to have them recalled or find out they are poisonous and dangerous for our children? All I can say is UGH!!!!

Sorry for the rant, these things just get me so frustrated.

April-mommy to Ronald-1 YEAR OLD!

I know what you mean, April. There are recalls on some of the Old Faithfuls (like some of the cough meds), making us feel safer using natural remedies. However, some of the herbs are not FDA approved for use with infants. I think it's important to consider other factors that may be involved when things like what happened to the child with the Hylands happen. Maybe there is a food allergy to potatoes or something like that that triggered the reaction??? I don't know, but I pulled out the good ole' orajel after I read this! (Though I'm sure if I searched hard enough, I'd find someone who'd had a terrible experience with that, too!!).

Parenting can be scary stuff! But so worth it.

I wonder what actually happened in that instance. If there were truly a toxic substance in the pills, they would have been recalled by now, right?
Homeopathics are not the same as herbal preparations, and as I understand it, their manufacture is regulated by the FDA.
http://www.hylands.com/faq/faq11.php
I used Hyland's teething tablets with both of my children when they were babies, and I sometimes used a lot of them in a given day and never had any trouble. I also have used their colic tablets with good results.

This is not consistent with the nature of homeopathics: homeopathics are not a herbal medicine but contain very very minute traces of the plant or mineral source. I suggest viewing the following information:

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

If you are looking for an independent info source, speak with a Naturopathic Doctor or Homeopath.

I am a Mom with a toddler and have found homeopathics to be a wonderful, safe, and effective tool; and an alternative to pharmaceuticals that have many proven, and potentially dangerous, side effects.

I was doing some research online and ran into your page. My son is 8 months old, and he had been taking the Hyland's teething tablets(125), and just monday he suffered from a randon seizure. I had just stepped out to the store and my husband called me in a panic. Thank God the ambulance got there within 2 min. of the call. Our baby is perfectly healthy, and has no allergies or anything. We couldn't figure out what was the onset. At the hospital they did numerous test, CT, blood tests of all sorts, and couldn't find anything. I had metioned that he was taking the teething tablets and I left in such a rush that I forgot them on the night stand. The doctor asked where I had got them from, and I told him that they were over-the-counter from Walgreens. He asked if they had "belladonna", because that had been linked with seizures in young children and babies. I had no idea. When we got home I looked on the bottle, and sure enough there it was, 0.0003%. However, I learned that these tablets are not regulated by the FDA or any other organization. We went for a follow up with baby's doc. yesterday, and he referred us for an EEG with a note about these tablets attached. He said that he had seen other cases and would never recommend tablets, just orajel. If the pharmacist had not advised me to use these particular tablets, I would have not purchased them. We're still in the process of investigation, and waiting for the EEG results. DId you seek any legal action with you son's situation? please contact me about this. There are innocent lives at stake here, and this is an over-the-counter product that is not being regulated properly!

Hyland's Teething Tablets Safety Information

Are FDA regulated.