Lynn Eschenbacher is a pharmacy manager on the WakeMed Raleigh Campus. She is also the mother of two young girls.
McNeil Pharmaceuticals recently issued a recall for certain lots of Children’s and Infant Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl products. The recall is due to these lots possibly having too medication in each dose, ingredients that weren’t meant to be there or having tiny particles in bottle.
While no adverse reactions have been reported at this time, it is still very important for parents to check their medicine cabinets to ensure medication is not included in the recall and to dispose of any affected products. (A full list of the recalled products can be found here.) Contrary to popular belief, these are not benign drugs and need to be handled accordingly. Tylenol and Motrin, for example, can harm the liver and/or kidneys if too much medication is given.
The best way to dispose of a medication is to make it unappealing. To make sure that the medicine doesn’t get into the hands of children or the mouth of family pets add water to the liquid medicine and mix it with coffee grounds, cat litter, sawdust or other solid waste, then bag the mix in a plastic bag and seal the bag.
McNeil is offering coupons to replace the affected medication. Click here to request a coupon.
Thank you for those helpful suggestions regarding disposing the medications. Do you have any recommendations regarding which medications to use until the recalled medications are corrected? I am nervous to use any other medications now and we use the dye free ones which appear to have all be recalled.
Hello, Kerry-
I can understand how you would be worried. For the time being, I would recommend any of the generic versions of the same medication. If you would prefer to stick with brand name medications, I am certain McNeil is working hard to fix the issues so other lots of the brand name product should be fine as well.
Lynn