Hi,
Elliott got diagnosed with mild bronchitis on Monday and has been given amoxicillin- the first time he's ever had antibiotics in fact. I was surprised that it was still that bright yellow colour that it was when I was a kid but it has worked and he's been much better....in his health. In his behaviour he's been like a totally different child. It has built up over days but from being a calm, chatty child who is fairly outgoing and bouncy but able to sit and read books with me for half an hour at a time he turned into a whirling dervish who kicked people, screamed, hardly strung a sentence together, flung his toys at the telly, spat, picked fights and basically reduced my parents and I to gibbering wrecks! The course has finished today and as it went on my lovely polite little boy appeared again, he spent 45 mins making pretend pasta with play-do this evening and was utterly charming after 5 days of being a little horror.
Now my little brother was hyperactive (he's 30 now mind) and used to flip in exactly the same way after having certain colourings and I had noticed that when Elliott drinks very cheap supermarket squash (particularly orange) he tends to lose it a bit so I checked the colourings in the medicine. What I found was that it has sodium benzoate (a preservative, now taken out or diet coke and lots of other fizzy drinks and actually illegal in some countries) and quinoline yellow- a colouring banned in the US and Japan and on a list of colourings banned by the FSA in the UK for food aimed at the under 3s and on a list from a ban from food from 2009. Apparently medicine doesn't come under the same legislation as food stuffs so what they don't now put in food and drink after research into it they can still put in medicine! I phoned Boots and they do amoxicillin without the quinoline yellow but it still has sodium benzoate in it. Frankly I'm horrified and fell like I was kind of poisoning him even though he needed the drug. I think if he needs it again then I'll ask the Dr if there are other ways of taking it- even if I have to get cunning with the powder/pills (I'll check first of course).
Anyway just wanted to share and ask if anyone else had experienced this? There are quite a few mums on NetMums taking about it so we can't be alone. My OH is a journalist and is wondering if there's a story here....?
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Elliott got diagnosed with mild bronchitis on Monday and has been given amoxicillin- the first time he's ever had antibiotics in fact. I was surprised that it was still that bright yellow colour that it was when I was a kid but it has worked and he's been much better....in his health. In his behaviour he's been like a totally different child. It has built up over days but from being a calm, chatty child who is fairly outgoing and bouncy but able to sit and read books with me for half an hour at a time he turned into a whirling dervish who kicked people, screamed, hardly strung a sentence together, flung his toys at the telly, spat, picked fights and basically reduced my parents and I to gibbering wrecks! The course has finished today and as it went on my lovely polite little boy appeared again, he spent 45 mins making pretend pasta with play-do this evening and was utterly charming after 5 days of being a little horror.
Now my little brother was hyperactive (he's 30 now mind) and used to flip in exactly the same way after having certain colourings and I had noticed that when Elliott drinks very cheap supermarket squash (particularly orange) he tends to lose it a bit so I checked the colourings in the medicine. What I found was that it has sodium benzoate (a preservative, now taken out or diet coke and lots of other fizzy drinks and actually illegal in some countries) and quinoline yellow- a colouring banned in the US and Japan and on a list of colourings banned by the FSA in the UK for food aimed at the under 3s and on a list from a ban from food from 2009. Apparently medicine doesn't come under the same legislation as food stuffs so what they don't now put in food and drink after research into it they can still put in medicine! I phoned Boots and they do amoxicillin without the quinoline yellow but it still has sodium benzoate in it. Frankly I'm horrified and fell like I was kind of poisoning him even though he needed the drug. I think if he needs it again then I'll ask the Dr if there are other ways of taking it- even if I have to get cunning with the powder/pills (I'll check first of course).
Anyway just wanted to share and ask if anyone else had experienced this? There are quite a few mums on NetMums taking about it so we can't be alone. My OH is a journalist and is wondering if there's a story here....?
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