KIDS
DRUG-FREE Natural Alternatives
to Common Medications by Lisa Marshall
W
ant to keep your kids off drugs? The place to start is with your own medicine cabinet. So say a grow- ing number of health practitioners that are viewing the recent proliferation of medications being targeted at kids with alarm and urging parents to turn first to common-sense home remedies or natural alternatives when possible. “We tend to be a nation of pill-takers, who turn to medi- cation whenever we need relief for anything,” says Dana Point, California, pediatrician Robert Sears, co-author of the new book, The Portable Pediatrician. “If we can increase the use of our skills as parents in using time-tested home rem- edies to help our kids feel better, we can rely less on pills.” Because children metabolize drugs differently than adults do, cases of lingering side effects, like grogginess or hyperactivity, and accidental overdoses are widespread. Poison control facilities nationwide received 30,000 calls re- garding pediatric acetaminophen alone in 2009, and roughly 7,000 kids end up in emergency rooms each year due to cough and cold medicine overdoses. Between 2000 and 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) received reports of 14 deaths and 74 non-fatal adverse events due to acetaminophen-dosing errors.
According to a 2010 report by Orlando, Florida-based Medco Health Solutions Inc., children’s drugs now constitute the fastest growing segment of the pharmaceutical industry, with sales increasing by 10.8 percent in 2009 over 2008, and usage by children rising four times faster than for the general population during the same period.
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One in four children under 10 and one-third of adoles- cents ages 10 to 19 take at least one prescription medica- tion on an ongoing basis, according to the report. The num- ber of minors taking drugs for respiratory problems is up 42 percent since 2001 and those medicated for the chronic heartburn of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is up 147 percent.
Market research firm IMS Health reports that spend- ing on non-prescription pain medication for children spiked from $191 million in 2005 to $250 million in 2010. Despite three years of government warnings about potential dangers, including seizures and death, of giving over-the-counter cold and flu medications to children under age 2, 61 percent of parents do it anyway, according to a recent national poll by C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Meanwhile, new ad campaigns marketing drugs for kids continue to proliferate. Publisher Scholastic, Inc. was criti- cized recently for distributing coupons for the allergy medi- cine Children’s Claritin in its elementary school newsletter distributed to kids.
“I find it very concerning,” says pediatrician Hilary McClafferty, a clinical assistant professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. “Some drug companies are exploiting parents at a vulnerable time, preying upon their feeling that they need to do something to make their child feel better immediately.”
Why shouldn’t a worried, sleep-deprived mom or dad reach for a quick fix to placate a miserable little one in the
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