The trash. That’s where the FDA’s newest press release on homeopathic teething tablets found itself. In fact, I had such a hard time keeping track of the circular reasoning and inconsistencies in their release, that I had to read it twice. Then I laughed. Then I cried (but mostly laughed). And then, I felt the need to set the record straight because a whole lot of moms are going to toss-up and freak out over a whole lot of nothing.
As a mom of five, I like to make decisions based on facts, science, and common sense. The last thing I’m going to do is throw out something that works for my kids and my life (and quite frankly, millions of other parents since 1945) because of some off-the-cuff propaganda that’s got an agenda.
So, before you do something crazy and throw out your lifeline of “homeopathy doesn’t work and it’s dangerous” teething tablets, allow me the pleasure of breaking down the stupidest press release I’ve ever read, from an organization I wouldn’t trust the cat I don’t have with (let alone my children):
Red Flag #1
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers that homeopathic teething tablets and gels may pose a risk to infants and children. They didn’t say what these risks are, because … let’s be clear, they admitted in their statement that they have no idea. So, they planted the idea that a group of symptoms that could be attributed to any number of things – could be caused by your child’s teething tablets.
“Consumers should seek medical care immediately if their child experiences seizures, difficulty breathing, lethargy, excessive sleepiness, muscle weakness, skin flushing, constipation, difficulty urinating, or agitation after using homeopathic teething tablets or gels.”
Clever phrasing, but does that mean homeopathic teething tablets cause any of these things? No, it does not. Did the FDA cite any scientific study to support its position? No, it didn’t. Was its statement based on facts and science – the “gold” standard the FDA supposedly adheres itself to? Of course not … unless you count the unsubstantiated report(s) that made up the a prior safety alert from 2010, forming the basis of whatever it is you call this.
That’s SIX years ago people. A safety alert from 2010 that was so legit, they never got around to looking into it until now.
Red Flag #2
The FDA’s original beef was that these teething tablets are manufactured to contain a small amount of belladonna, a substance that can cause harm at larger doses; yet the amount of belladonna in a teething tablet is minuscule and there is NO scientific link between these tablets and seizures, just like there’s no scientific link between staring at an ice cube, and turning into Elsa from Frozen.
According to Hyland (which knows far more about homeopathy than the FDA), a 10-pound kid would have to ingest more than a dozen bottles of teething tablets to experience even a symptom like dry mouth. There’s 0.0000000000002 mg of belladonna alkaloids in a baby teething tablet (about two trillionths of a milligram in each tablet), which is thousands of times below what is commonly prescribed in conventional medicines, like anti-spasmodics.
So let me get this straight, I’m supposed to freak out over two trillionths of a milligram of belladonna and not think twice about injecting hazardous wastes, carcinogens, and neurotoxins at far greater levels, on a schedule that has never been tested for safety or efficacy, into my children?
I can buy Tylenol (which the FDA was also wrong about) like it aint’ no thing, drown my kids in antibiotics, and give them water to drink each morning with a side of poison (fluoride), but I should throw out my teeny, tiny, never-been-proven-harmful teething tablets? Say what?
Speaking of water, do you know what else can cause harm if you take too much? Some good, quality, H2O.
Red Flag #3
While we’re talking about the FDA trying to pull a fast one, do you know what is linked to seizures during those terrible teething years? Vaccines. I can’t make this stuff up. It’s all right there in the studies, package inserts nobody reads, and in the database that stores all of the reported adverse events the FDA pretends doesn’t exist (because they’re super busy trying to create one for homeopathic baby teething tablets). You know what else can cause seizures? Fevers caused by the illnesses that vaccines induce.
It’s ironic that they’re training parents to think “teething tablets” when they witness a seizure, dry mouth, or constipation, instead of the most obvious causes like vaccines, vaccine-induced fevers, and dehydration. Yes, the rise in childhood disorders has been solved: It was the teething tablets all along … or at least it will be since they’re finally testing samples of a formula that Hyland actually CHANGED in 2011 (since the cited 2010 safety alert) to “manufacture” a link that doesn’t exist.
They already know they won’t find anything suspicious, which is why they hurt the bottom line of a successful company and scared millions of mothers everywhere away from something that is safe when used properly and might actually work.
Fear … it gets us every time.
Red Flag #4
And let’s not forget, the FDA made the bold claim that teething can be managed without prescription or over-the-counter remedies, while giving no alternatives, straight up stated they haven’t evaluated the teething tablets before literally destroying a business and the sleep-filled nights of infants and mothers everywhere, and made it oh-so-easy to report a potential adverse reaction to a teething tablet. But that’s red flag #5.
Is there a new pharmaceutical something in the pipeline to help teething babies? You tell me.
Red Flag #5
The FDA practically begged physicians to file a report for all things teething tablets. Seriously, they give you the form, several ways to submit it, and a fax number. They practically filled it out for you. If that’s not suspect of a witch hunt … I don’t know what is.
If a parent brings their kid in for seizures or any other symptom, the first question should be: “Was your child recently vaccinated?” This makes the most logical sense since homeopathy has been used for over 200 years and is associated with almost zero side-effects, unlike vaccines.
Red Flag #6
The FDA acts like homeopathy is some rogue version of woo, but it’s actually regulated by its own agency. Homeopathic products have to comply with the FDA’s labeling requirements (21 CFR §201), must be manufactured in accordance with Current Good Manufacturing Practices (21 CFR §210 and §211), must register with the FDA, and manufacturers must comply with FDA inspections and report any serious reactions as a matter of course.
It’s funny that the press release called out Hyland for indicating that their product is intended to relieve teething symptoms in children, because their own agency requires that OTC homeopathic medicines list a therapeutic indication on the product label. Hello? Anyone?
Should you throw out your teething tablets?
I can’t tell you what to do, but I’m not throwing out my teething tablets (or my essential oils, which have zero medicinal properties whatsoever). I’ve read Hyland’s own 411 on their teething tablets and I’m not a fan of pretending that a company is guilty of a crime it hasn’t committed or that it’s product is dangerous when the evidence doesn’t support that.
I expect a little something more than an issued press release that tells me to dispose of something that may cause nothing, based on a six-year-old hunch that it could cause something it doesn’t, and a solicitation to submit a report if my child has a seizure, so they can manufacture a connection to take the heat off of what we all know is actually causing them.
I saw right through that press release. Chances are, if you read it twice … you will too.
I can’t believe I didn’t realize they recalled these as they arethe best thing ever! I now have baby #6 and on my last half bottle of these where can I buy more!?? Any suggestions? Thanks!
It’s great people are discussing the differences of opinions. I am an integrative physician who utilizes homeopathy and it’s sad that it isn’t more well understood. As to what is in the products, just how diluted these amounts are, and that taking more tablets doesn’t equal a larger mg dose, as each dose is a signal to the body. Which is why we say, “Take 2-5 pellets,” which would be very different if it were a supplements or a pharmaceutical, 2-5 is a major change in the addition of a chemical agent to the body’s system.
A book that may be helpful to the parents who are wanting a better understanding of homeopathy is a book called “Homeopathy: Beyond Flat Earth” by Timothy Dooley, MD. I think it’s lovely that more parents want to understand instead of being fear mongered into a way of thinking. However, don’t rely on a blogger you clearly don’t trust, do your own educating in both sides of the argument.
Well , this reply is really for the MOTHER of 5 Megan ! So let’s start with FACT: My son has seizures from Hylands ! SCIENCE: says poison is poison no matter the form or the amount of dilution! COMMON SENSE: should I give my child poison when I know it’s actually poison ? “ Just because it’s natural and comes from the Earth “
I seriously don’t know why I bother explaining anything to ignorant people that get warned about and actual product which clearly shows major issues in at least 400 and 10 deaths . One main factor you NOT understanding …..most people did not know that it was poison in any amount and two that a child’s brain barrier is wide open during teething ! Which gives any amount of poison direct access to their brain ! So there are probably hundreds if not millions of people that used this product and had no known effects , but how do we really know ? The problem is with belladonna is you can’t detect it smart one . If your waiting on SCIENCE ,well that’s a lost cause . But your “ COMMON SENSE “ should tell you to keep poisoning your children after tons of actual warnings and take the risk on your child’s life because of people making up stories about their children being poisoned and getting seizures . That’s right , it’s all a big fluke and your couldn’t possibly get seizures from poison …..common sense ???????
Babies are dead from this product and
If this article convinces mothers to use it and one more child dies, it’s your fault. You should be in jail for this article. It’s childish to think the FDA is just warning people for the hell of it. I wouldn’t be surprised if the company wasn’t behind this article. So hard to believe a mother Would publish something so absurd.
1. Babies are not dead from this product.
2. There are a lot of products on the market though that are FDA approved that are killing babies.
3. No company is behind this and I was not paid to publish this post.
Babies are not dead due to this product. My 18month old got into a bottle of them once and ate the whole bottle! I instantly panicked and called poison control. They asked if she was showing any symptoms and I said not yet. They asked what the ingredients were and I promptly read the list. She told me that I shouldn’t have anything to worry about since it’s all natural. None of them are drugs or chemicals that your body cannot digest. Poison control told me to keep an eye on her and take her in if anything seems out of the ordinary. So that’s exactly what I did. I watched and waited… and NOTHING happened. Let me repeat, NOTHING. No drowsiness, no diarrhea, in fact no ache or complaint of any kind! Literally NO DIFFERENCE! Besides the fact that the FDA is literally full of garbage agendas and couldn’t care less about your children, these teething tablets were the ONLY thing I found that actually work to soothe sore gums! Orajel is filled with all kinds of garbage that your body doesn’t know what to do with and can cause lots of problems if accidentally consumed (and doesn’t work at all!!), but that is still on the shelf… maybe they paid the FDA to eliminate the competition.
We kept using ours. Two very alive and well babies. 🙂
my mom has raised four kids with the use of teething tablets and we are all fine and dandy. Im sad for my daughter now because she cant experience the relief from teething aches and pains because the tablets are gone. All that’s left is baby orajel and to hell if im going to give my baby something like benzo when that stuff numbs my whole face up. Im more afraid of orajel than tablets
It’s available on Amazon
So if babies are dead, why didn’t anyone get arrested, why was it only a FDA suggestion, they were not forced to take them off only recommended, the reason is there is zero proof. You bought the big pharma lie, hook line and sinker. Good luck in your reality.
Look into vaccines and there ingredients then do some more research into the only things that are completely safe for consumers to use besides pharmaceutical. Look up the 3 different catagorys the FDA recognizes #1 nutrition #2 nutraceutical #3 pharmaceutical (which are toxic). People do your research before you comment on something you know nothing about!
So happy my kids got to use these! I recently recommended them to a mommy with a teething babe. Turns out she told me that it was discontinued. I suspected the government did it and it was the belladonna. Turns out I was right. But it is such a tiny amount. I believe it was vaccine injury. I think all the insane inflammatory non natural people who comment here just don’t know anything. Right now I do not have any cartilage in my hip. I’ve been in pain for a year and the surgeon is hot for my money without proper consultation and drawbacks so until I find the right person to do it. I am taking medicinal doses of some things I’m glad I found the right natural combination that works, But I’m informed and research stuff. Even though I a natural person and will always turn to this first, I don’t believe stem cell will work. It’s risky non insured procedure being touted as the new alternative to hip replacement where they take thousands of dollars with no guarantees. So keeping a balance of practical and allopathic. I’ve taken my kids to a d.o. When the homeopathy regimen wasn’t working at least a d.o knew about homeopathy and wasn’t over quick to prescribe but did because it wasn’t helping the problem. people are crazy! I had a client say organic food was from the devil because it was a test to see if we actually trusted god with regular non organic food. Why are people loosing their minds so easily to organized pharma, religion, FDA, politics….thanks for your article.
Why is this missing critical information so that people can form educated decisions?
Missing info: the few conclusive testing shows inconsistent amounts of the drug commonly known as deadly nightshade and sometimes far exceeded the amount claimed on the label. This is violates at minimum labeling laws meant to protect those who buy over the counter.
Also, their symptom list wasnt made up or pulled out of thin air! It was based on the link of hundreds of kids coming in with these side effects after overdosing on Belladonna which contain alkaloids, which have anticholinergic effects. Classic signs of anticholinergic toxicity include fast heart rate, increased body temperature, dry skin and dry mouth, skin flushing, constipation, decreased urination, agitation, disorientation, hallucinations, and dilated pupils. Drowsiness may also be seen in infants. FDA received reports of serious adverse events in children taking this product that were consistent with belladonna toxicity. 400 kids with nightshade symptoms immediately after taking night shade. 10 died. These mislabeling and impossible to know dosages lack safety warnings and risk vs benefit purposes, and the overuse of the product because they are seen as safe and natural, are all major problems since teething is never deadly and NOT comparable to life saving vaccines which *do* prevent deadly childhood diseases by millions each and every year. Death over teething pain, and unexpectedly__ because the bottle is mislabled and the product is unreliable in dosing is not positive risk vs benefit. By any means. It’s a dangerous finding.
But you know…whatever. This blog isn’t irresponsible at all. Putting babies lives at risk for pseudoscience
1. Correlation doesn’t equal causation. Are you against vaccines?
2. Citations
3. Insufficient evidence to remove a product that has been used for an extensive amount of time and is associated with literally no side-effects from the shelves.
4. How do you know the symptoms were caused by the teething tablets and not the correlating vaccine schedule?
5. The FDA (and possibly you though I would hate to judge) clearly do not understand homeopathy or how it works.
6. The FDA received complaints consistent with vaccine injury. Again … please look up how homeopathy works.
7. Bottle was not mislabeled.
8. Complaints were from 2006. 11 years ago …
I could go on …
I’m just looking for one sane person to help me decide what is best for my child. I need one community with logic, science, and common sense to help guide me and all I keep running into is people who are focused on their own agenda that you leave more discouraged than when you started. You have people screaming about vaccines are the reason for everything bad under the sun while the other side is saying natural cures will kill your baby. It was once said it takes a village, but what happens when the village is run by idiots.
Omg… Amanda, you need to step away from the fluoride and learn to use your brain. There are still ppl who are able to think for themselves – maybe you could find a support group..?!
Please excuse me – I’m a smartass but I don’t mean to be so hurtful and ugly. It’s just that Every time I read comments like these, it blows me away how either brainwashed or bought OR both so many ppl still are these days. Then I can’t help but to assume these ppl are the trolls… placed here to argue the lie using all the points possible.
A better possible staring point for any one looking for the truth on this topic might be a search for the meaning of homeopathy.
I agree with this article. Any baby can have a reaction to any food you give them. Also the doctors say that you can’t give a baby water until he/she is at least 6 months. Water?? God forbid we can’t give our babies water!!! What else can we not give our babies? I have 2 kids and every year it is something new. When my first baby was born, Mylecon was recalled, and now Mylecon is back and Hylands is recalled. Sippy cups were recalled last year! Back in the days there weren’t so many issues. I honestly feel that the government doesn’t understand babies and their body digestive system and they are trying to instill fear on parents.
Because water affects absorption and digestion in young babies…
The FDA’s original beef was that these teething symptoms tablets are manufactured to contain a small amount of belladonna.
That’s not how homeopathy works.
…….how does homeopathy work then? Id love ti hear your answer. A talented blogger would at least explain when arguing his/her point, not just blurt something out.
It doesn’t work. It’s bunk. It’s the opposite of science. It’s at best a joke and a worst a scam to take gullible people’s money
Completely agree. This makes my blood boil! Only problem is now I can no longer get these and my little guy has lots of teeth to go still.
Korina, if you do a little searching you can find companies that still sell them. I found some on a site called Clickhere2shop.com and bought several bottles to stock up.
I’d like to purchase some too to stock up but the looks of that website make me a little nervous. Did you order come in as expected? Are they the actual Hylands brand?
I am a firm believer in the value of homeopathic product. My now 40 something kids used them for everything, colds, teething, fevers, and they actually do what they’re supposed to do. Back then we ordered from a catalog, Whole Earth maybe? Never a problem. I would be interested to know if they’ve done any studies on the effectiveness of CBD for teething symptoms.😉
yea i’m about to call all area drug stores to see if any still carry them. the sad part is that, these things more than likely happened to poor innocent kids because parents didnt want to deal with them crying so much and gave them too much. i recomend these to everyone i know. my daughter is about to be one and she gets one teething tablet a day, if needed. we prefer her to tough it put, bur if we see it’s getting to be too much we give her a tablet. i call them her happy pills, cause she becomes happy instantly. I wish I had known about these when i had my other 2 kids. these are definitely a great product in my book and should be brought back.
Use Camilla teething pods they’re great
You can get them online 😂
I have a 2 month old & was upset to find out they’d been recalled AGAIN!!! WHEN they’ve ALWAYS worked just fine for my kids!!! Of course I’m not stuffing them down their throat all day I’m guessing quite a few parents must of been feeding them to theirs baby’s as meals in order to od… 😒 anyways lol i seen them for like $20
Pretty darn spendy… 😒😒😒
I never had problems giving to my 2 kids 14yrs ago! Also, I didn’t feed it to them like a meal but thought it was safe from giving as needed without fear of overdosing!Which never even crossed my mind! Funny,not really funny..but my daughter when she was almost 11months started having seizures &I know I used it hylands tabs With both kids &with new baby only thought of hylands….but the seizures were februal,some times had a fever before seizure,sometimes not,but she grew out of it&never did Dr’s bring up teething tabs,they never found anything wrong with her,because it’s a common thing with young kids under 5yrs old.
Look on amazon…i thought there was some on Amazon thru 3rd party company’s. I fell into the scare trap but i thought i saw some hylands.
Actually, I can’t find them! I was pretty sure I saw them in the last few months.
Hylands has calming tabs,They are not saying they are for teething but other people in reviews are saying They are using for teething, cranky or irritability . If anyone does find them , let us know .
Update*** they are thru 3rd party companies on walmart. walmart.com.
It is confusing….some bottles say 6x,or 30x….meaning potency?I’m not sure….
We have them at our local walmart!
I can’t find them online anywhere and I would really like to get some for my son. Everyone I know who has kids swears by them. Please help! Walmart’s site says they can’t offer buying options foe this item.
My thoughts exactly! Thank you for having the bravery to speak the truth.
Thank you!!!
I won’t give up the tablets. I trust a family owned, 100+ year old company over a bought and paid for government agency.
You’re nuts. The FDA said it received reports and complaints regarding these homeopathic tablets. They are warning people that the tablets could potentially be problematic, and as such, you should be cautious.
Yes, they did not do studies, but they received enough complaints to warn us of possible issues. Now, just because they didn’t do studies, it doesn’t mean that the causal relationship is not there. It could very well be. If it turns out that there is a connection, and the FDA ignored the complaints they received by not sending out this press release, then they would be in deep trouble.
The press release asks you to look at alternative ways to help your baby, just be cautious of this particular product.
Also, just because it worked for you and your kids, and millions of other kids for that matter, it doesn’t mean other kids can’t and won’t have adverse reactions to the same drug. Everyone is different, you know, and parents have the right to know that there might be these types of side effects.
You’re nuts too. Here’s some data from the CDC. By your own logic, that means we should all stop administering vaccines.
ccording to the CDC, from 2006 to 2015 over 2.8 billion doses of covered vaccines were distributed in the U.S. For petitions filed in this time period, 4,374 petitions were adjudicated by the Court, and of those 2,847 were compensated. This means for every 1 million doses of vaccine that were distributed, 1 individual was compensated.
Since 1988, over 17,935 petitions have been filed with the VICP. Over that 27- year time period, 16,187 petitions have been adjudicated, with 5,269 of those determined to be compensable, while 10,918 were dismissed. Total compensation paid over the life of the program is approximately $3.6 billion
Ugh yes it’s a cover up for vaccine injured babies!! Duh ! First thought before I saw this article which I found googling it bc I knew there were moms who knew dang well the tablets most likely more than half of our kids have eaten way too many off by accident before are healthy as can be and living !!! Homeopathic anything isn’t harmful manmade toxic bs they force you to pump in your kids is! Ugh blood boiling subject! Anti vax organic gmo free everything and homeschool for life!
Medicine is done via risk vs need. Many of is take meds to save our lives\quality. Vaccines which you will so obviously deny, save millions of lives. Your comparison is medically and scientifically invalid.
Vaccines saves lives? Why is there a vaccine compensation fund? Why is mercury, aluminum, aborted fetal cells, formaldehyde, god knows what else in vaccines? Ohhhh and guess what, Marijuana is a medicine and millions of people take it to improve lives and save their lives. Big Pharma wants your money. Open your eyes.
Ok… now I know Amanda is a troll… Megan, tell me she’s a troll. 😋
YES!! Thank you for writing this!
We recently ran out of tablets and it makes me sad every time we pass the aisle they were on at the store! Lol
I was told too many times by people who’d never even heard of Hylands that I should not buy what was in my buggy. I can’t imagine what they’d have said if I’d told them that not only was I going to buy them, but use them. My children also aren’t vaccinated and won’t be until they fix way too many problems that will never be addressed! On average, people don’t do their own research and just go off what the news tells them or the post they saw on facebook. Thank you for putting the truth out in the open for people to easily access! There is an agenda, and people should be made aware of it.
I never read that the FDA tested the Homeopathic teething solution. Please be mindful when making statements. The use of Belladonna has been in practice for many years. The way it appears to me how the FDA is stating their story, sounds more like assumptions, and a desire to link the adverse reactions to Belladonna. By referring to it as a poison that is is being used as medicine. It also states that their has been no FDA testing of Belladonna to prove that it has any health benefits. This is a bunch of mumble jumble psychological babbling. It really sounds more to me like envy and a desire to gain power to meddle in natural healthcare for potential financial gains. Why because more and more people are returning to the natural way of allowing the body to heal itself by giving it what it needs. In any situation where one wishes to accuse someone of anything, one has to prove that what one is speaking is actual facts, if it is based on speculations with no actual proof then it is nothing more than pure propaganda set forth to sabotage what is believed to be the competition.
The problem is ultimately anything that is natural and works, ticks the government off because the pharmaceutical companies aren’t allowed to patent anything that is natural. That’s why they have to create a chemical copy, which they can in turn patent it for 20yrs and make a ton of money off of it.
Haha was a silly comment. Have you even read the amount of money these “natural remedies” take in each year? Americans have spent over $32 BILLION dollars on “natural remedies” and you want to call pharma companies the greedy cash cows. $32 billion dollars is about 1/3 of what American spend on prescription drugs. The only difference is, these prescription drugs have gone through testing and it is known how it works in the body. That testing costs millions to billions of dollars. Yet your precious, “natural remedies” are raking in billions without having to dish out any proof that it actually works, how it works, what it interacts with, and what antidote, if any should be used. This item was recalled because certain Lot numbers had more than the recommended dose of belladonna in it. No the FDA did not run studies, you know why, because if something is labeled as a supplement they are not allowed to until there is a problem. Your precious teething tabs are allowed to market themselves as safe until there are reports. And side effects from supplements are greatly under reported because people like you assume: “supplement = safe” so they don’t report these items to their physicians or the hospitals. Go ahead and take a look at the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, you will see that companies are allowed to sell and market anything without FDA interference until a problem is found. I’ll go ahead and save my $32 billion dollars for something that has been proven to work. I’m not saying all pharmaceuticals are safe or without risk, but I’m also not naïve to think that natural = safe either. Poison Ivy is natural, but I’m not about to throw some of those leaves in my salad.
Who cares if natural remedies make a lot of money if they work? It costs money to produce and bring a product to market. We all recognize people need to be paid for their work. My problem is when companies sacrifice integrity for the sake of profit. As for the “proof” you speak of, you should probably take that up with the government because it takes a significant amount of money to fund these studies and they aren’t dishing out the money for natural supplements that can’t be patented and conflict with their interests.
P.S – None of us who believe in natural medicine consume poison ivy.
With respect,
Megan
Megan,
I’m not against making a profit I understand people need to get paid. However this is a lot of money to be pocketed for a product that hasn’t actually been proven to be safe or effective, it’s just assumed. I’m also not saying you would consume poison ivy…… I’m saying I know the harmful effects of poison ivy and because of that I would ingest any amount in any form so I’m not about to give my baby a known poison, regardless of what miniscule amount the package says…… at the end of the day it is still a deadly poison. Not to mention that Hyland’s has already been dinged in the past for having unregulated amounts of belladonna in their product. You mention the recall from 2010, you have yet to touch on the reports since then. Your comment like, “there is NO scientific link between these tablets and seizures” seemed to null in void based on your above statement. Your right there is no link because the product hasn’t been tested. A product that does bring in millions of dollars in sales each year, you’d think they would be willing to fund a study to clear their name, but instead they will just move overseas where the regulations aren’t so stringent. That doesn’t cause a red flag for you? Next comment, “straight up stated they haven’t evaluated the teething tablets before literally destroying a business and the sleep-filled nights of infants and mothers everywhere, and made it oh-so-easy to report a potential adverse reaction to a teething tablet.” There is a reason for this, it’s called the DSHEA, the FDA is not allowed to step in and evaluate anything until these events have been reported, what’s more is I find it interesting that you say the FDA makes it so easy to report these events. The FDA is doing their part, I guess I miss the part where Hyland’s provides the phone number or website to report the any adverse events…… oh that’s right they left that out leaving it up to the family and physicians to report on Hyland’s behalf. You are so quick to jump on the FDA but don’t realize they aren’t not allowed to intervene in these types of agents until there is a problem, how is that safe for children? Next comment, “The FDA practically begged physicians to file a report for all things teething tablets.” Actually only 1/3 of American physicians know that they are responsible for reporting adverse events suspected to be related supplements. So the FDA obviously isn’t begging for anything, when you do go on there yes the form is simple because they are only capturing what the event was and what the physician feels caused it. The FDA isn’t focusing on anything in particular, the physician is. Also, “If a parent brings their kid in for seizures or any other symptom, the first question should be: “Was your child recently vaccinated?”” actually physicians actually ask this, I know because I take my child for medical care. They ask for all recent medications, or illnesses. The use of supplements and homeopathic agents is actually drastically underreported because people don’t feel these are medications or that they have any side effects, “because they’re natural” so they don’t share this information with medical professionals, it’s usually shared when parents are asked specifically about their use. So again blaming the FDA doesn’t make sense, your argument should then be the physicians are on a witch hunt not the FDA. Lastly, “It’s funny that the press release called out Hyland for indicating that their product is intended to relieve teething symptoms in children, because their own agency requires that OTC homeopathic medicines list a therapeutic indication on the product label.” is actually false. Homeopathic agents do not fall under FDA regulations they actually fall under DSHEA which clear state the label must state the following: “: “This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease”. These teething tablet are for the FDA what is called, burden of proof. Meaning that the FDA can not interfere with market or distribution until they are proven to be unsafe, the only way the FDA can do that is by consumers reporting adverse events. Once consumers report these events then the FDA is allowed to step in issue warning and then recall. So while you want to raise all the red flags on the recall your red flags should also be noted to have their own red flag as you want to just call our the FDA, when really they aren’t exactly the bad guy you are portraying them to be.
Amen they’ll go broke if everyone did an ounce of real research!
More information has just come out about these teething tablets. Babies have died. Now that you have more information about specifics, you should remove this blog post.
https://www.statnews.com/2017/02/21/hylands-homeopathic-teething-fda/
With all due respect, only 370 adverse events from 2006-2016? As THIS POST states, the formula was changed in 2010. What were the exact adverse reactions and were the pre or post formula numbers? Were these babies recently vaccinated? Did their parents correctly follow the label (looking at the comments in this post will tell you that many don’t)? Were these events causally connected to the teething tablets? Where’s the proof? How many babies took teething tablets from 2006-2016 so we can put that 370 into perspective?
It’s funny … this article says that infants are susceptible to the neurotoxicity of drugs yet … perfectly okay to bypass the body’s natural defenses an inject them with neurotoxins in vaccines. You know that thousands are injured (many of whom are permanently disabled or killed) by vaccines each year, right? Did you look at the image in the post that says, “Baby died after taking teething tablets for TWO weeks.” So tell me, was the baby vaccinated during that time frame? What else happen during the two weeks? Did mother give at the proper dosage? How do they know it was the teething tablets? As for the “seizing,” it’s scientifically proven that vaccines can cause seizures. This isn’t even one of those out their anti-vaxxer conspiracy theories. The time period a parent would give their child teething tablets coincides with when they would get their vaccinations so … why would I jump to the teething tablet (which has never been proven to cause seizures) and not a vaccine (which has)?
Where’s the proof that teething tablets contain toxic levels of belladonna? I’ve seen a lot of accusations but no definitive evidence proving this or that the reported 370 adverse reactions (most of them probably consisting of a runny nose or a wet fart) were causally connected to teething tablets.
I’m sorry, but if you’re concerned about babies dying then you need to look at the U.S vaccination schedule. Blog post stands. 😉
With respect,
Megan
I also think we need to be careful, because although a death is a tragic event – it was not proven to be caused by teething tablets and when you put into perspective how many thousands of people die each year falling down their stairs or drinking too much water, or at the hands of vaccines – I think it’s a bit absurd that this is what we’re choosing to wage the war against.
You may have already seen this article, but I thought that I would share in case not.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hundreds-of-babies-harmed-by-homeopathic-remedies-families-say/
Apparently many people have had issues with this specific brand of teething tablets. Sounds like their dosing is not consistent.
https://www.statnews.com/2017/02/21/hylands-homeopathic-teething-fda/
I hope your children do not face the same issues these children have. The reason the FDA exists is to regulate medical products. Homeopathic products are not medically regulated, therefore the research is not done in a statistically controlled fashion. Without a statistically controlled method of research, it is impossible to prove causality. I would say the fact that they have enough data at the moment to say that there is a risk it would merit any parent be concerned. A child crying in pain is far better than your child ending up in the hospital.
If the FDA dealt scientifically with safety data and did not allow unsafe pharmaceutical medications to remain in the market one might give more weight to their opinions. But they are too deeply in the pockets of the pharmaceutical industry to have the credibility to pass such an opinion. Let us not forget that the FDA is also of the opinion that the miniscule amounts of an active ingredient in homeopathic preparations is too small to have any therapeutic effect, and therefore any response is a placebo response. When they throw in that gem they conveniently forget that the placebo response rate for pharmaceuticals is 30-40%. It appears contradictory that they believe the preparations have no effect on the one hand but are dangerous on the other. I smell a concerted effort to destroy all and any therapies that hurt the bottom line of big pharma.
What “data?” You didn’t substantiate or support your statement with any proof. You just believe something told to you with no scientific backup.
I LOVE this and your message. I don’t like giving my child OTC with all of these adverse side effects and relied on the teething tablets (of course given to her as recommended on the boxes) to help ease her pain and discomfort of teething. Now that she’s 19 months and cutting her molars I wish I had those tablets. Prior to the discontinue she never had a fever…never cranky…always nursed…ate her food…no issues. Now I’ve been battling fevers…cranky..sleepless night..etc. The whole press release and FDA “study” sounded bogus when it came out and I held on to what I had till they ran out. Now I’m wishing I had more. I’m searching for another homeopathic remedy for my daughter’s teething cuz the possible liver infection or brain damage from prolonged doses of infant motrin or Tylenol is NOT what I want.
Thank you for speaking out so well! Keep up the good work!
There is more belladonna in a single drop of Ophthalmic pupil dilating drops
(Atropine) than in an entire container of teething tablets. Each teething tablet
contains 0.0000000000003% which is less than 1 mg. Each B&0 suppository
contains 16.2 mg of belladonna. The Physician’s Desk Reference (PDR) lists
scores of FDA approved prescription drugs that contain much higher levels
of Belladonna.
I have a link to your website on my blog: http://homeopathynotes.blogspot.com/p/dont-blame-hylands-teething-aids.html
We still have them available for sale at https://www.clickhere2shop.com/hyland.php if you’re interested in purchasing.
These tablets are sugar tablets with a minuscule amount of a poison. So yes, it’s minuscule so you’ll probably be fine but it’s minuscule so it doesn’t do anything except maybe contain too much of a poison. No reward, all risk. Might as well give your infant a little bit of sugar, because that is basically what you are doing except it’s sugar with a tiny bit of poison in it.
Well, the FDA actually recommended against the use of this product because it has no proven benefit and carries some risk of toxicity. Because the dose of the tablets is inconsistent, there is a risk of a child being given a toxic dose. Belladonna alkaloids in an unpurified form are not a medication. Certain belladonna alkaloids have medical uses, but these drugs are taken very seriously and are not used lightly. They would not be used for things like teething pain.
All FDA approved medications have been studied for efficacy and safety. When using any medication, there is a need to balance benefits of that medication and risks of that medication.
These teething tablets could be a poisonous dose of belladonna and have very little chance of providing any benefit. Your babies life is in your hands. How much do you believe in homeopathic products? Is enough to risk your babies life?*
*Obviously the writer believes in these products to the point where she will risk her child’s safety, but maybe some of her readers are more level headed
Thanks for your comment Abby. I’m curious, how long have you studied homeopathy? How many documented and proven adverse reactions have there been from teething tablets?
P.S – I’m a huge fan of teething tablets. Then again, I’ve studied the political issues surrounding the FDA, have four years of training in homeopathy, and have five kids who all cut teeth like a boss. I need something a little more substantial to throw out something that works … but that’s just me.
With respect,
Megan
I agree I’m a pediatric nurse and I was definitely disgusted by the fdas willingness to throw Hylands under the bus when we all know orajel which was regulated by FDA was the true culprit of infant deaths and problems and this article was genius linking the fact that all infants get vaccines and these are reactions to vaccines. Both my kids did great on teething tablets when nothing else worked at all. I do not trust the FDA and researched the corruption of the FDA and I’d be more concerned with grandparents and adults in general taking the laundry list of drugs that aren’t even shown to help that the FDA approves…go with your gut moms…
Thank you!! This author needs to educate herself. There is a RISK that is being taken by given your child teething tablets. Why gamble with your babies health?? Concerning judgement.
What are the risks and where is the proof?
We are talking about teething tablets that have been used for decades and are associated with no negative side-effects – beyond those that are purely speculative; so please, if you have some legit sources I would love to review them.
With respect.
Megan
I know if there was even one mom of a child who died from teething tablets speaking out I’d believe this but somehow I think the orajel parents often give with the teething tablets and look at flint Michigan and the water being poisen…what external factors were involved during time these alledged reactions that we can’t even look into because they offer no resource or evidence just a corrupt agency saying they think these caused some vague symptoms that a number of things could be related to. They have gained popularity and almost all moms use these so are the population they studied having seizures the same amount of times the typical population not taking tablets has and I think the vaccine link this article makes is hook line and sinker. I am a nurse and I found like 5 teething tablet boxes left at schnucks and bought them all and my teething 9 month old finally has some relief when nothing else works…I am not convinced that a product out for 40 years has anything to do with sudden witch hunt the FDA is playing the same game the media plays like look here not at the real problem…
If we’re talking about the same case – that death was never actually connected to teething tablets. I read it and thought … there are MANY things happening around this age that seem like a much more likely cause (like vaccines). But of course, the sugar pills that supposedly don’t work did it. The FDA has actually not studied seizures and teething tablets either. That was one of my issues with their approach. I’m with you – I’m not convinced either. 😉
I’m just hearing about this, and it’s laughable. The FDA has been on a witch hunt to destroy homeopathics, or anything that works. Raw milk will kill you, uncooked fruits and vegetables will kill you, sprouts will kill you. Basically, anything that works, or has live enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and nutrients is deadly. I’ll tell you what causes lethargy, seizures, and death, vaccines do. Vaccines cause everything they’ve listed. I am so done with the FDA, CNN, FOX news trying to fear monger and destroy the alternative medicine, and healthy way of life.
There are real people who have been impacted.
They have been impacted by one product, which when tested, was problematic. The FDA is really only targeting one product, tested to be problematic.
To keep some perspective, in 2016, the FDA recalled Children’s Tylenol because a number of batches were mis-prepared. That recall didn’t prove the FDA didn’t believe in Tylenol, or that it did believe in Tylenol. Nor did it prove the FDA believed in pharmaceuticals, nor did it prove the FDA doesn’t believe in pharmaceuticals.
It’s just a single, problematic product. Don’t get all mountain out of a molehill about it. If you do, you’re likely to start talking about tons of unrelated items, like they’re all connected somehow. They’re not. Unless you thing the FDA first checks the deadliness of sprouts to see if this product is safe, instead of the testing results.
They offered no proof and have not done a single study since they do not do studies on homeopathic medicines and have not and will not. All they are doing is taking complaints and no way to know what else were the moms giving their kids such as baby orajel or were they using their sink water to mix formula because people don’t realize how messed up people’s water is and the things they don’t even have to tell you is in water like radon and living near a nuclear waste land fill I only use pure water but I wander about the vaccinations and the timing of these seizures cuz I guarantee you the FDA doesn’t tell
You the truth about the side effects to vaccines and when these alledged teething tablet symptoms occur when these aren’t even sold here and when they run out of people to blame maybe we will get some kind of truth but I doubt it. I’m a nurse and I see the corruption or the FDA I could go on for hours. My first child never had a problem and my second has not had a problem yet. Use your own brain and gut to decide what’s best for
You.
I can not even read all the comments without getting a major headache from all, should I say “Stupid” people or should i rather refer to them as either “jidds or Troll’s for the jidds”?!
And than we have idiots that refer to links that common knowledge should be that those organizations in these links are owned or bought by the what you guys might would call the “elite”, 1% etc…..
Truth is the elite, 1% are 98% jidds.
The jidds running our life’s throughout the world and their best the Genocide us all off.
But of course, the masses still is blind and as long the masses can truly not see what is really going on on our beloved mother earth, peace will never be.
Look up Georgia Guide stones.
Megan,
You always amaze me with your ability to analyze. You are an impressive young woman and, I would bet, a great mother. Too few people question authority. Thank you for everything that you do. Please please, keep doing it.
With Love,
David Darell Galbraith
Thank you David. 🙂
Hello Megan,
I thank you for this article it’s been quite helpful, I never had any problem with these tablets before so I was shocked when my niece told me she couldn’t find them that they were recalled. Where do get them. They pull the teething tablets out of Rite-Aid and Albertsons.
https://www.clickhere2shop.com/hyland.php
Regina I just ordered my daughter 2 boxes from here.
Homeopathic remedies only very rarely cause side effects, but never anything serious that I have ever heard of in 51 years of medical practice. Only a person who does not understand homeopathic principles would think otherwise. However, it is documented in the medical literature (Journal of the American Medical Association) that there are over 100,000 deaths annually from reactions to drugs approved by the FDA as “safe and effective” and have been correctly prescribed by their physicians.
I agree that they rarely cause side-effects; but, even you would agree that if the poison wasn’t diluted sufficiently, the end result would be to deliver a dose of the initial poison great enough to cause poisioning symptoms.
You can call it a mis-prepared solution. I won’t argue that, and it’s as close to the truth as any other explanation. We might disagree on what consists a properly prepared solution, or what it might do when administered; but, we can both agree that a mis-prepared dose wouldn’t have the desired effect. A mis-prepared dose would have a poisonous effect.
Some poisons take a larger dose than others to take effect. It would follow that some poisons would require a greater dilution than others to avoid the negative health effects (and if you believe in homeopathy, instill a positive health effect). So, I’d expect some standardization on the initial concentration of poison (none of this “natural dose” stuff, as that’s quite variable), and none of this “standard x300 dilution” because obviously some stuff would require more dilution, and perhaps some stuff wouldn’t require as much.
So, if the belladonna in this products has been diluted at the amount you say, than wouldn’t this product just be a placebo? There isn’t anything in it that will relieve teething. Why would you pay good money for something like this? Also, your reasoning is very faulty.
There are two major theories about how homeopathy works, in my understanding: 1) nano-particles, and 2) the energetic signature of the original substance carried in the water…which then goes into the lactose tablet. You definitely don’t want to try and understand homeo through a chemical-view…it doesn’t work that way. Its sort of like Newtonian physics isn’t the same as quantum physics…at all. Both true…but have very different rules.
Homeopathic remedies work as information, messages to guide your body to heal itself. Information doesn’t have to have “stuff” in it. When you put a flash drive or CD Rom in your computer, it supplies information to your computer, but no “stuff” passed from the flash drive to your computer. Homeopathic remedies contain the electromagnetic imprint of a substance, and this imprint is what your body recognizes as a message. These remedies have worked for 200 years and saved many lives during the worst epidemics in history. Hundreds of thousands of medical doctors practice it around the world. Five hundred million people use it because it works, it’s safe, and it’s affordable.
That is the whole idea behind these products. Find out what homeopathic means.
I have worked in the natural health field for over 10 years. I knew this recall was bogus because the product has been out since the 1940s and NOW the FDA has a problem with it. I don’t trust the FDA. Chemical versus food based products… mmm that’s not too hard for me to chose. My son is on those tablets- no problem whatsoever.
“chemical versus food based products…” All food is made up of chemicals, all botanicals are made up of chemicals..belladonna is also made of chemicals. Nature can kill you in a hurry so can so called “natural products”.
No last name. Do you work for the FDA? What is the point of your comment?
@Kim, you seem to be a troll. You know absolutely nothing about homeopathy and how it works. Have been using in every days live homeopathy on my family for over 40 years and it always helps.
That’s a good point. Also, the governments in Canada and the UK still approve it.
That’s a reasoned decision not based on an emotional predisposition at all. You should also ignore any future recalls of anything else, if it’s been working for your family so far. Airbags? Forget it. That’s big safety’s conspiracy. Car seat recalls? children’s toys with lead? Organic produce with E. coli, salmonella, or listeria? That’s all conspiracy. Clearly the government has an axe to grind with all these issues and are just trying to scam all of us.
These teething tablets were not recalled.
We must always do our due diligence as parents to research whether a claim is legit.
And yes, the FDA does have an agenda. This is common knowledge.
Bests.
My husband sent me the CNN press release as a matter of urgency. When I picked him up from work he asked if I had read it. My reply was simple, “No, and I probably won’t.” I went on to explain the previous witch hunt and told him I’m not tossing our tablets. I sent him your blog post instead!
Let me start out by saying that I LOVE you! My son was vaccine damaged over 20 years ago and ended up in the Autism Spectrum as a result of no allopath being able to solve his gut/neurotoxin load, I brought him to a Heilkunst Physician (fancy term for Dr. Hahnemann’s whole system of remediation which includes natural homeopathic law, like cures like). He was also prescribed tissue salts for mineral deficiencies and teething issues. His first teeth didn’t show up until well after a year due to his other dynamic issues. Fast forward 20 years and my son has been whole and healthy for over 17 years now and I actually studied this same system of medicine, as a result, which took me 12 years of full-time study, wrote 14 books and have been prescribing those same, safe tissue salts and homeopathics to hundreds of patients around the world without one incident of harm caused. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your intelligence and pragmatism in the face of Big Pharma’s attempt to white wash a perfectly great product and company. Sadly, it is only the beginning of a very insidious and unethical campaign.
I just want to say that I love your humor and I love the research that you do. Keep up the good work!!! And thank you!!!
Thanks Jamie! <3
So I have had 3 kids take teething tablets life savers let me tell you I would tell any new mom with a new baby teething to buy teething tablets.. well I just had my 4th baby he is 5 months and just got his 2 bottom teeth coming in after a few bites of him up screaming I go to buy teething tablets to my surprise no stores have them so I get on the web and see all this craziness don’t give this to your baby and I think are you joking I gave all my kids these they have been fine healthy but you have to give them right and not over do it I think some parents may over do it but I am so upset that my baby boy has to suffer I am trying to comfort him but nothing works like them teething tablets and I went to every store trying to buy them they don’t even sale orjel
Teething tablets have been the ONLY thing that works for my four month old. I was pretty upset when I heard there was potential danger in using it, but after reading this it made me think twice about it. I will admit that my baby slept more than usual, but I don’t know if that’s from the tablets or just because she’s teething. Anyway, I hope there is more research out there so I can make the best choice.
I agree!!! Make vaccines the parents’ decisions, NOT the F.D.A. and the( government getting kickbacks) decision!!! Hylands have been around for years and provide relief for teething pain. Do you realize how little .0000000000002mg is ?????? Lighten up people and think before you are conned!
I’d say stock up on the teething tablets because the FDA might find some ridiculous reason to ban them in order to please their pharma overlords. The teething tablets work great (as does homeopathic chamomilla).
Also why don’t they have that many links and instructions for pediatricians and nurses to fill out Vaccine Injury Reports to the VAERS since those are way underreported (probably less than 10% of actual vaccine injuries get reported), vaccines contain toxic heavy metals e.g. mercury, aluminum in higher dosages than the FDA even recommends for an adult (especially considering a baby’s weight) as well as many other nasty ingredients, and since the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund pays out the maximum amount Congress has authorized every year to families of vaccine-injured individuals? Follow the money….
Right on! I just filed a report with VEARS for my daughter who experienced febrile seizure and non-stop crying for over 6 hours after DTP in 1991… figured I had the right in spite of the length of time. No doctor has ever recommended it – though I’ve been chastised for not knowing what a severe reaction was and have also been told many times the reaction was a coincidence & not vaccine-related. Sheesh, who is pulling the wool over their own eyes??
Powerful article!!
Smart. ^
I normally don’t comment, but I wanted to tell my story with Hyland teething tablets. First off, I go the natural route whenever I can. I use elderberry syrup, vitamins, homeopathic as a first choice when sick. So when my son seemed to be having teeth pain I gave him 2 tabs of Hyland’s teething. By accident, because I didn’t have my glasses on I thought I read to give this every 15 minutes 3x. So I geve him 2 more after 15 minutes. Could they make the type on the bottles bigger! Anyways, my 1.5yr son had a very bad reaction. He became very agitated and started to cry. Then he became extremely lethargic and we thought he might loss consciousness . We panicked and brought him to the ER. The whole ride their I thought he was going to pass out. It was frightening. At the ER they knew nothing about the tablets and brushed it off. To this day I know it was the tablets. I will not use them again.
How can the reader be sure you didn’t accidentally give your child too much of anything else with out your glasses on? What about recent vaccines? If I had to use glasses to read I certainly wouldn’t risk misreading a label before giving anything to my baby.
You accidentally gave your child Twice the Recommended Dosage but you blame the tablets for your child’s reaction? You caused the whole frightening incident, yet you are blaming a 70+ year old, safe and useful product for your actions. Wow. How about knowing that You made the mistake, not rely on your bad eyesight in the future, and continue to use the product As Recommended?
I am a homeopathic remedy user and I WILL NOT EVER suggest anyone ever use those tablets. I have witnessed first hand what they do to babies: cause ticks and seizures lethargy and other horrible side effects. If you use them and you kids and no VISIBLE side effects you are lucky (who knows what they did to their internal systems). I’m guessing you are an avid breast feeder, eat organic/clean foods and would only offer that to your babies, and obviously you do not vaccinate and I’m guessing you stay away from meds/antivbiotcs. Why would you feel it’s ok to put a sedative (belladonna) into your tiny baby’s body??!! toxicity from belladona this can lead to death!! There are no studies on safe amounts, and every one is different so some kids need very little while others can tolerate more without side effects. There is nothing in the parenting bible that says you MUST use medication to relieve teething pain. How about safe remedies like frozen wet wash clothes or hard foods to bite down on (because I’m sure there would be a rebuttal on the use of the frozen teether with the gel substance inside; because who would put an UNKNOWN SUBSTANCE IN THEIR BABIES MOUTH??!). I pray that neither you or any of your readers who believe your biased drivel never have a baby who differs from toxicity of this product. Please educate yourself before ranting and potentially harming others.
Signed: – a fellow wholistic mom who things teething tablets belong in the trash.
Sarah
I wish I had known this. My experience with my baby was incredibly scary.
I’m curious if you have a POV on probiotics and vitamin D for babies. Just curious on your thoughts.
Yes check out this Wikipedia article for Belladonna. Scary!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atropa_belladonna
Please just use frozen washcloth or some other method!
It’s hard to believe that you are a homeopathic remedy user. There is no way in the world that these teething tablets would ever cause tics, seizures or lethargy in a baby. The Belladonna in any homeopathic remedy is NOT the same as crude Belladonna. In fact, in homeopathy, it will take away things like febrile seizures (seizures caused by a high fever). Please educate YOURSELF, before making false statements. If you knew what you were talking about, you’d know that this post was not “biased drivel”, on the contrary, it was extremely factual.
Thanks for your post I could not have said it better myself! I am truly sorry if a mom believes or is led to believe her child’s challenges are from Hyland Teething tablets. I would imagine if I pharnacist, chemist, or others in the medical world would say homeopathy is a waist of money because their is no medicine in those pellets. Where’s the money? I have used homeopathic remedies for my family for 30 years. Now that they are older they know what they need.
Then you’ve taught them well…that’s awesome!! And that’s the way it is, when something works as well as homeopathy does, and that information is passed on to the next generation, they continue to benefit from these treasures. That’s why homeopathy has been around for over 200 years. What a wonderful gift you’ve given your kids, Cat!!
If you were a homeopathic user like you say then you are not understanding the homeopathic preparation. You say you have seen what these do, is that all of the above or just one of them. Might want to check your facts. Do you even know what lethargy is? Have you ever seen a seizure? And are you aware that 5 to 10% of infants will have a seizure like episode prior to the age of two that have direct links to the vaccination protocol. Really Sarah is this the best rebuttals you have.
You sound like a troll spewing the typical lies and ignorance. And in case you might have an inkling of real curiosity left in you, homeopathy is an energy medicine. It does not provide material doses. However, you seem to have no issue with all the very toxic materials in allopathic medicines which are pumped into babies by the dozens and do cause seizures and regressive autism and death.
You’ve witnessed first-hand? Do you mean your child suffered such a reaction that was deemed to have been caused by teething tablets?
I personally used them with three of my kiddos, as did most of my friends, and *no one* I know has a child have any sort of reaction other than cessation of fussing, crying, restlessness, and seeming to be agitated by pain. The only side-effect I’ve seen is a calm, contended, baby.
You don’t seem a qualified homeopath, go and have a proper homeopathic training.
This is in response to the person saying to stop taking the pills. Please give us more information as to your first hand knowledge of the side effects. Have you seen more than 1 kid impacted? Was there anything else that could have caused the issues? Did they start only after immediately starting on the teething tablets? Did the issues stop after taking the teething tablets? MOST IMPORTANTLY: Did a Medical Doctor provide a diagnosis confirming your own thoughts? Trying to make sure we are troubleshooting this and narrowing down the cause. Unless you have conclusive evidence please do not share your opinions as if they are fact. However, if you have evidence PLEASE share it. It would help bolster your points, and could help people make an informed decision.
Great article! The absurdity and lack of intelligence of this news release made steam come out of my ears. I believe thinking Americans are on toxic overload from the lies coming at us daily from all corners of the government.
I do not trust anything the FDA or CDC says..
Really? You don’t believe anything they say? That’s too bad because in some cases they are probably providing helpful information. Like when they tell a company using soy to label the product with “soy”. That seems to help a lot of consumers know what they are purchasing. And they have a web-site listing recalls and safety alerts. However, I will say they can be run better. An example – on their safety alert web-site I did not see the alert for the Teething Tablets. Used the Search function and it came up empty. Went through the list and there was nothing in Sept and October. So while I like a lot of what the FDA does, they probably do have issues like every other organization.
That’s right, they can’t be trusted. They are in a position of oversight, so there’s no excuse for “having issues”. Occasionally they may get something right, but most of the time, they either haven’t got a clue, or they have an agenda. The CDC is guilty of fraud when it comes to vaccines (CDC Whistleblower), and the FDA…well, when it comes to natural health vs pharmaceuticals, it’s obvious they have extreme conflicts of interest, as does the CDC. Most people know that having these agencies in those positions of oversight, is like having the “fox guarding the hen house”. They should all be overhauled…but sadly, so many people these days are BOUGHT…and that’s criminal!
I just read that Obama made the head of Merrick (a major pharmaceutical company) the head of the FDA. I need to do more research to find out if this is in facts truth but would that be convenient…
A-freaking-Men! The fear-based propaganda is getting more and more desperate…comical!
This is hilarious. First, teething tablets can be extremely helpful for many babies, secondly homeopathic Belladonna is actually used to treat seizures. My 2 year old has epilepsy and we decided to try an alternative after reading all of the side effects of the meditation she was prescribed by her physician. During a Seizure I gave her a dose of Belladonna 30c and it stopped it immediately. Her previous seizure lasted 6 hours in the hospital. She has been seizure free for almost 3 months thanks to homeopathics in general but specifically Belladonna. Also the FDA is a joke – and I used to coordinate pharmaceutical studies for the FDA.
A six hour seizure? How on earth is that child alive? Brain damage begins after minutes of nonstop seizing. I’m 100% asking, no snark intended.
It is amazing that the FDA that can approve an endless stream of pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines even after they have proven to do harm to patients, and then to warn against this homeopathic preparation. The reason, of course, is simple. The FDA is bought and paid for by the pharmaceutical companies, it does their bidding, it is more interested in their profits than patient safety. And critics of homeopathy (erstwhile supporters of conventional medicine) need to sort out just how it wants to attack homeopathy. Is it just sugar pills, that work only because of the placebo effect? Or are homeopathic remedies harmful? They cannot have it both ways! Although, of course, they try to!
Brilliant article! Thank you Megan.
Very good article. Homeopathic is 100% safe and effective without any side effects. I have been taking them for more than 20 years and belladonna is one of them. They keep me away from medical doctor and hospital.
So you don’t get sick ever? And you never need annual check-ups?
Kudos to you in the highest potency for this Megan! I blogged about this as well, and included a link to this coverage by you here:
http://homeopathynotes.blogspot.com/p/dont-blame-hylands-teething-aids.html
Thanks for sharing Sandra!
Thank you for writing this. I would love to see a scientific study between vaccinated children who were given teething tablets and non vaccinated, but I doubt the FDA will ever do a fair study. Meanwhile, all the vaccine injured patients are told, “It’s all in your head.”
You say youbase your decisions on FACTS, SCIENCE amd COMMON SENSE
Here’s some science for you….
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/smart-news/1800-studies-later-scientists-conclude-homeopathy-doesnt-work-180954534/
http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/homeo.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/08/homeopathy-is-bunk-study-says
Go to Google and type ‘homeopathy debunked’ and read some REAL science
This isn’t a post about whether or not homeopathy works. People will go back and forth on this and you can certainly pick and choose studies to support either position (though I think we should agree right now that Quack Watch is not a legit source). This post is about the FDA’s unsubstantiated call for people to throw out their teething tablets. If homeopathy doesn’t work, than who cares. Let the babies have their tablets!
they’re UNREGULATED and therefore no one knows what garbage is in there. Likely very cheap, dangerous garbage, so stop endangering children
Pharmaceutical drugs are REGULATED, and look how many people have been damaged or have been killed by them…but that’s okay and we should still trust the FDA?!! Ridiculous!! We DO know what’s in them…YOU don’t. If you don’t want to use them, don’t. Those of us that have used them for years, will continue to do so.
The FDA said there’s a recall because adverse events have been observed. Should we just wait for them to do an entire scientific study to just to conclude it’s unsafe? Where’s hylands proof that their tablets are safe and effective? Shouldn’t the onus be on the manufacturer? Also the FDA inspected their facility and found substandard manufacturing protocols. Do you want to give your kids something that is substandard? If homeopathy doesn’t work why should it be advertised as if it does? Isn’t that deceptive?
RC, please read my post.
The science that proves that Vaccines work obviously wasn’t on your reading list.
You’re concerned about the comment stating that homeopathy doesn’t work stating that your article is about proving safety of teething tablets. When in actual fact your article is just anti vaccine propaganda.
Write about teething tablets if that’s your concern, check out the real facts and science behind vaccines and don’t try and hide your anti-vaccine messages.
There is NO science that proves that vaccines work OR are safe…NONE. Read a package insert for vaccines, and you’ll see, not only the absurd amount of toxic, cancer-causing ingredients that are in them, but also that you can actually come down with the very virus that you’ve just been vaccinated for.
You’re entitled to your opinion, but there is absolutely NO science to back it up.
Because in this case there was a mixing error that led to large amounts of belladonna being present in the tablets, which is a real and present danger for babies… babies could die from the defective tablets, which is very good cause to remove them from the shelf and advise parents to throw them out.
Homeopathic remedies don’t work at best….. and can harm someone if improperly mixed, or marketed for life threatening conditions at worst.
Case in point… many stores sell a homeopathic asthma treatment… after being thoroughly lab tested, the only thing in this asthma treatment was water. It was basically a water mist inhaler… if someone has a life threatening asthma attack, and uses this product instead of a real medication, then they can die.
Parents that use these teething tablets are being lied to, swindled out of money, and any positive effect the teething tablets have are purely placebo on part of the parent.
These products need to be banned from sale, they are misleading, trick people into not seeking medical care, are cleverly disguised ways of stealing people’s money, and can be harmful or cause death.
Homeopathic products have to comply with the FDA’s labeling requirements (21 CFR §201), must be manufactured in accordance with Current Good Manufacturing Practices (21 CFR §210 and §211), must register with the FDA, and manufacturers must comply with FDA inspections and report any serious reactions as a matter of course.
Many comments on this page can address your misconceptions of homeopathy. 😉
OMG, where do you people get these “stories of fancy”?!! What a bunch of made up garbage! All you’re doing is showing either how much you don’t know…or how gullible you are. Millions of people have used Homeopathy for hundreds of years, and those of us that use them now, know their true value. You can pretend that they don’t work all you want, but millions know better. A person would have to live in a cave to believe what you say.
Stephanie places far to much faith in a government that has seriously screwed up everything it touches and doctors that only know what big pharma tells them while they are on pharma paid vacations to Las Vegas. For the most part doctors know less about prescriptions they prescribe than patients that actually do the research on test administered by their doctors and the medications prescribed. In my experience, people that blindly trust doctors have the best chance of going actually blind or dying. My doctor prescribed Actos to me to treat diabetes. This drug almost blinded me, made my legs swell to twice their size because of damage being done to my kidneys and liver, and if I didn’t do my research, while I could still see, I could have suffered an early death, as a blind man. I quit taking the Actos and everything went back to normal. So I started taking Actos again and the symptoms came back. After this, and my research, I took myself off of most of my prescriptions and changed to an organic based diet and quit eating wheat. I lost 50 pounds, went from using 180 units of insulin a day, to poorly control the diabetes, down to 50 units a day with the diabetes under much better control, and my doctor was amazed by my improved blood tests. The FDA did take Actos off the market because of the many heart attack deaths. Later under pressure from pig pharma, the FDA put this deadly product back on the market. I firmly believe that knowledge is power and trusting the medical profession or our government is the quickest path to the grave. And I never use vaccines because I know that mercury and aluminum should not be injected into your body and certainly not our children’s. Question authority, people.
People want to believe their government can be trusted. Unfortunately, our government is so corrupt that the only people that can trust the government are the corporations that own the politicians. Far to often, after high ranking officials in the FDA allow or disallow something that just turns out to be in favor of corporations like big pharma or the likes of Monsanto, when these officials leave the FDA they are rewarded with very high paying jobs with those corporations they aided while working at the FDA. Government has never been the answer and has always been the problem. I mean, if vaccines are safe, why are they immune from suits? No one should have this kind of immunity.
Derek,
If homeopathy does not work, then how can it cause seizures?
Can’t have it both ways bud.
What? Are you insane? The negation of homeopathy’s INTENDED purpose doesn’t mean that it’s incapable of any effects- especially adverse ones. If a product doesn’t relieve tooth pain that doesn’t mean it cannot be dangerous to consume. If anything I suspect it’s more likely to be dangerous because it is junk science peddled by a company whose primary concern is profits and doing only enough to avoid liabilities.
Let’s not distort the message. The message is the FDA warns against homeopathic teething tablets yet fails to cite why the practice of giving them to children as actually being dangerous. You then provided links that also fail to show homeopathic remedies are harmful. So what?
Homeopathy has been working for over 200 years…so much for their “scientific studies”. The CDC, FDA, and the AMA have all lost credibility. And now we have huge amounts of fraudulent science, that is now in that same catagory.
When the companies who will benefit from negative results, are the very ones who finance the studies…than those studies also have no credibility. Homeopathy works, and HAS worked for longer than most of us have been alive. Too bad allopathic medicine feels so threatened…but it’s clear that when your products actually harm people, with the FDA’s blessings, there’s reason to worry about products that help people without side effects.
Advice is: as soon you read FDA approved – run!
Firstly, homeopathic remedies do not work. They are based on the hypothesis of “water memory”… basically, you make a solution of something, put one drop of the solution in plain water, shake, and continue diluting until zero active ingredient is left (like putting a drop of something in the ocean), assuming that the water “remembers” what was in it. Thousands of homeopathic remedies have been tested in labs, and the only thing present was sugar, water, or sometimes large amounts of alcohol (one homeopathic dog calming remedy had so much alcohol, it was stronger than what could be sold for human consumption, which can be lethal to dogs *Veterinary technician, saw a dog harmed by this* )
Normally these teething tablets have ZERO active ingredient, only sugar and binding ingredients to hold the tablets together… in routine testing, entire batches were found to have been improperly diluted, which means large amounts of actual active ingredient were in the defective tablets (large amounts of belladonna), this led to babies being poisoned… The FDA had to investigate the claims before hand, to confirm that the teething tablets caused the issue (blood tests confirmed that the baby had belladonna poisoning, and the only source of belladonna was the teething tablets) hence why it took some time to issue the warning.
The reason homeopathic remedies are dangerous, is because they have no oversight, no testing, and mixing errors can lead to poisoning in unsuspecting people (This is part of the Natural fallacy, people think that if something is natural, it’s inherently “safe”… this is untrue. Sharks are natural, they can kill you. Snakes are natural, they can kill you. Plants are natural, many contain serious poisons and can kill you.)
Recently, a natural sleep and pain remedy was taken off the shelves, because it contained huge amounts of morphine (the remedy contained ground up opium poppies, a natural plant, but is the plant that heroin, and many narcotic painkillers come from, including morphine)
The statement that vaccines are untested is false. Vaccines have to, by law, go through years of testing before ever going to market. Huge meta-analysis of vaccines, including millions of people are studied, and done all over the world have found vaccines safe. People can read the vaccine inserts, but they don’t understand what’s in them, or how they are written… a vaccine insert might include “decapitation” as a side effect… but that is because the law requires that ANY event that occurred during testing (the very testing you claim they don’t do) and clinical trials, must be included in the insert information… so if Jane Doe is a patient/part of the testing and clinical trials, and she is decapitated in a car crash, her cause of death “decapitation” must be included in the insert… this of course is not directly due to the vaccine, but because she was part of the trial/testing, it must be included. This reporting of any and all conditions, wether due to the vaccine or not, is confusing to people, and makes them think the vaccine causes health issues it does not.
The VAERS database is a paper dump website… none of the studies, papers, and articles submitted have been peer reviewed, or analyzed. Anyone can submit anything they want to VAERS, that doesn’t mean that any claims are scientifically proven. To put it simply, anything said on VAERS is hearsay, and cannot be taken as fact until the claim is properly studied.
I know many families have had horrible health issues befall their children, and it is human instinct to do the “X happened, then Y happened… X caused Y” For many centuries, this line of thinking brought the idea of the body having “humors” which needed to be balanced… but the advent of medical science and scientific theory, taught us that “X happened, maybe Y caused that, let’s test that hypothesis, no, Y didn’t cause X… Z caused X) and so we now know that correlation is NOT causation… and even though when your child becomes ill, we want to lay blame on the most recent thing they did or happened to them (maybe a vaccine)… but science has tested, thousands of times, that this simply isn’t the case… true vaccine injuries are so exceedingly rare, that their incidence can barely fill a single page… out of millions upon millions upon millions of dose units given… if something works and is safe 99.99999% of the time, it is extremely safe… bridges are only safe 97% of the time, but you don’t see a mass panic to stop using bridges!
The information contained in this article is patently false…. and seeing as the product is proven to do harm because of the mixing failure, this article is willfully putting children at risk… like telling someone to stab a fork in a light socket… badly done.
Stephanie,
If homeopathy does not work and it is diluted to the levels of a ‘drop in the ocean’, how can it then cause seizures?
If I am not mistaken, the FDA NEVER found a direct link between belladonna in tablets and the alleged baby seizure back in 2010. If I missed the actual finding, please share link.
Today, the FDA will not find a direct link on this alleged incident either. If they do, please share.
Ben,
The point I think Stephanie is trying to make is that the problem in this particular case is that the remedy is NOT homeopathic and is being advertised as homeopathic.
In a homeopathic preparation, the Belladonna should be diluted so much that the end product should not contain any Belladonna. However, in this case the teething tablets actually contain Belladonna, thus the risk of Belladonna poisoning. The means these tablets ARE NOT homeopathic. If anything, people who would like to continue using these tablets should directly contact the manufacturer and demand some kind of guarantee that no Belladonna is actually present in any of the tablets. The product is defective. I believe the point Stephanie is trying to make is that if the products were as-advertised (i.e. WERE homeopathic and did not contain any Belladonna) then they would NOT cause seizures because they would not actually contain any Belladonna. But since they DO contain Belladonna, and are not homeopathic, they can cause seizures.
The belladonna in Hyland’s Teething Tablets is homeopathically prepared. There is NO scientific link between homeopathically-prepared belladonna, or Hyland’s Baby Teething Tablets, and seizures.
This is how homeopathic Belladonna is prepared:
“Here is a small guide regarding the optimum and safe use of belladonna in homeopathy. This homeopathic remedy is prepared using the whole belladonna or deadly nightshade plant. Hence, it is advisable that to prepare the medication, it is important to dry and crush the plant in order to extract all the essential oils and juices enclosed by this herbaceous plant. After extracting the oils and juices, they are put in alcohol to prepare a dilute solution that is subsequently prepared into a tincture of belladonna. Since this tincture is in a liquid state, it can be taken by placing it under the tongue without any difficulty. However, majority of the individuals taking the homeopathic remedy belladonna prefer to take the medication by putting it in a drink. It may be noted that the latter method has given rise to plenty of controversies, as any excess dosage of the medication may result in poisoning. Therefore, it is advisable only to take small and diluted doses of belladonna by placing the medication under the tongue.
Although the homeopathic remedy belladonna does not result in any side effects when taken in highly diluted and very small doses, it can turn out to be poisonous when used in large amounts. The major side effects caused by the use of this homeopathic medicine may include headaches, migraines and at times, extreme seizures or convulsions. It may be noted that taking belladonna in excessive amounts or an overdose of this homeopathic remedy may also result in death. Hence, it is advisable that before using this homeopathic medicine, people ought to ask for judicious and reliable advice on the herb from any licensed general physician or a person who is specialized in homeopathic medicines.”
Even homeopaths are concerned over the possibility of improper preparation, which is what happened at Hyland’s. Nobody should have been able to identify Belladonna in the teething tablets. If done correctly, as other people on this blog have mentioned, there should not be any detectable amounts of Belladonna present in the preparation. And homeopathically prepared Belladonna is just Belladonna diluted with alcohol. Nothing magical is happening and magic would be the only way I can think of to transform Belladonna into “homeopathic Belladonna” that does only good things for the body and has no side effects. The Belladonna does not transform into something else. It is the same substance that existed previously, only more dilute. Someone along the line at Hyland’s made a mistake that put children’s lives at risk.
http://www.herbs2000.com/homeopathy/belladonna.htm
Hi Howard, Thanks for the comment. Hyland’s was not found to have improperly prepared their product – that’s clear from the press release (and their website), and they are subject to strict standards as cited in my post. 😉
It like howardhughs88 never read your article or the FDA warning that is clearly suspect.
Thanks Howard Hughes. And that’s basically what the FDA’s report said.
And I’m sure the FDA paid you to write this post…
*Slow clap* you said everything that was in my head. It is a ridiculous fallacy to say “no it’s not the teething tablets it’s the vaccines!” When there has been true correlation and data here. FDA does not issue letters like this unless there is evidence. If they did they would be sued and lose. FDA has to make sure they back up any public information with science even if it’s not presented publicly.
Ashteria,
The FDA has sovereign immunity. Lawsuits are bared against the FDA, you cannot sue the FDA for approving a defective drug. As a Matter of fact you have to get permission from the FDA if you wish to sue them. Fat chance of that happening. You trust the FDA far toooooo much.
There is a fallacy to which the scientific-minded seem particularly prone, namely, that if we don’t understand how something works, it must not work. Stephanie’s comments are an illustration of this. Frankly, I can’t explain how homeopathy works, but I know it does work when one matches the problem to the right remedy, so in my book our understanding of “science” hasn’t yet caught up with the reality of an energy-based medicine like homeopathy (or, for that matter, acupuncture).
In the world of vaccines sometimes correlation does equal causation, so strikingly clear is the association. More often the damaging effects are somewhat subtle, like the gradual deterioration in a pet’s health after repeated vaccinations. VAERS was established in recognition that vaccines are not inherently safe or adequately tested, PR claims to the contrary. In an ideal world the VAERS data would
be mined and studied by more than just parents who’ve lost a child to Gardasil or the MMR vaccine. Funny, though, the pharmaceutical industry seems to show no interest in this, nor does the FDA.
be be stu
Thank you for bringing some sanity to this conversation.
No, Homeopathic remedies are based on homeopathic provings where healthy people, who have no idea what they are taking, take a homeopathic remedy over a period of days and it Causes new symptoms they have never had before. It is a repeatable scientific experiment anyone can do, including skeptical ignorants. Its repeatable, in that the same unique constellation of symptoms (mental, physical and emotional) will appear that others who have proven the same remedy, have experienced in the past. If you are really interested YOU could do a proving. See for yourself. Stop parroting wikipedia or quackwatch or other uninformed sources and find out for yourself.
I want to emend this comment: The symptoms that a healthy person experiences in a homeopathic proving are only temporary.
YEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
No…Homeopathy is NOT based on “water memory”. That was such a ridiculous statement, that we now know to discount everything else you said…you’re entitled to your opinion, but you haven’t got a clue…not ONE! You DO have an amazing imagination though.
It is late and I am tired. I must admit I did report teething tablets shortly after my son’s was diagnosed with infantile spasms. Three years have now passed. I still have no answers for the cause of his IS. I have my theories. He has never received another pertussis shot. I only comment here because I did note my son’s condition worsened while on the teething tablets. I was never told to stop giving them in hospital. He was started in one of the two approved drugs while there($32,000/vial). He did improve. He had his last spasm shortly after I gave the tablet. I never gave him another one. At that time, I had just skimmed an article online. I sear he’d all avenues. I have been told all about predispositions for seizures etc. I will not give my son’s s full story. I can only say that no they did not cause the IS, but they were not helping him. Over the course of two weeks I used them he went from 4 to 5 spasms to multiple several minute spasms. He is labeled as cryptogenic so no known cause has been found yet. So I called but declined a formal report. I did use the tablets with my three older kids without problem. Anyone can react to anything. I do agree with reading inserts. I take nothing for granted now. I am a RN who now stays home with my child. I do not see the warning by the FDA as an absolute to throwing them away, but as a way to allow others to make an informed decision. Sadly the sheet given at the Pediatrician’s office does not discuss Infantile spasms but can be found on the CDC website. I would state one problem is that most of us do blindly give vaccines trusting our doctor without being informed.
Angela I am sorry to hear about your child’s experience. Its remotely possible that your son reacted to the teething tablets in that fashion, but it was not due to a chemical reaction. Energetically he might have resonated with them in some way. Its a minor problem with using OTC “homeopathic” remedies. Actually a remedy is not truly homeopathic unless it matches on all levels, mental, emotional and physical And has a curative effect. Usually if there is no match it will have no effect but sometimes there is a partial sensitivity and it will cause some response, usually mild and temporary. When this happens a classical homeopath uses the response to help indicate the correct remedy. If you want to use homeopathy in the future, find a well-recommended practitioner.
I really appreciate your comment about “Anyone can react to anything.” Everyone is different-what seems harmless to some is harmful to others. We have to have understanding and compassion for each other. There isn’t a simple to solution for any of us or a one size fits all. We are learning more and more about sensitivities and it isn’t always clear what’s going on. Homeopathy can have rare side effects and so can vaccines and there aren’t always answers as to why. I’m severely allergic to certain things (including antibiotics and some other drugs) that most people aren’t. We don’t all process things the same. We are all different. When your family is affected by some kind of injury it is hard to find answers and hard to trust the system.
The rule with Homeopathy is…if there is no improvement fter the third dose then discontinue use and choose another remedy. Continued dosing is likely to “prove” the remedy ie bring about the very symptoms you are trying to ease.
Angela:
We can only imagine what you’ve been through, and hope your little guy will come through this with little or no residual effects.
It’s been the experience of millions of people, that the worst that can happen with homeopathic remedies, is that they won’t work (no effect) because the wrong one was selected…then you research further and can find the right one, that WILL work. Most of us use the low to mid doses.
If, however, someone goes to a Homeopathic doctor and is given a “constitutional remedy”, which is in the higher doses, they may get a “proving” or aggravation, which is mentioned as a possibility when your body receives that stimulation, but it’s temporary, and then your body can go on to heal.
The teething tablets are NOT in the high doses, and they help to control pain and high fevers during teething…high fevers that could cause seizures, so under normal circumstances, they would have been able to lessen and eliminate the possibility of seizures.
It may be that your little one had other contributing factors, as you mentioned, and vaccines are known to cause brain inflammation, which doctors don’t tell moms and dads most of the time, and then deny any connection if parents raise those questions. We appreciate your honesty and hope you find answers and end up with a very healthy little boy. He must be the love of your life!
Thank you. I smiled through the Whole. Darn. Thing. I love you. The end.
Can not see any sense in abolishing such a useful resort
So you’re fine with small amounts of belladonna (do you actually know what that does?) but not small amounts of fluoride in the water? That doesn’t make too much sense to me. Just because something is homeopathic, doesn’t make it safe or better for you. Of course you are entitled to your opinion, and I’m glad you aren’t willing to shove whatever drugs down your children’s throats.
With teething tablets/gel, you only give it when needed and you control the dosage and how often. With fluoride, you can’t control how much and when, it’s always in your water so you take it every day, throughout the whole day, and you can’t even stop taking it. Also, don’t forget that belladonna is a natural product whereas fluoride is a man made chemical that is actually a byproduct waste that needs a hazardous label to transport and discard. You just can’t compare the two.
The amount of belladonna is MINUTE. The amount of fluoride in the water? not so small. My son developed fluoridosis on this teeth from it at age 2. That is the sign of excess fluoride in the body, and it shows up to see easily in the teeth, that also means that it had been over dosed (just via drinking water, and water for cooking) and deposited in other areas of the body like the bones.
Jessica: You clearly don’t know anything about Homeopathic remedies. They are nothing like allopathic preparations. By the time a remedy containing Belladonna is made, after dilution and succussion, there is nothing of the crude form of Belladonna left. So, if a person took the crude form of Belladonna, they would become very sick. But if a person takes the Homeopathic preparation, it has the opposite effect…it will undo the symptoms.
Fluoride is not safe in any form…apples and oranges. Homeopathic remedies have been around for over 200 years and many of us have used them for decades with wonderful results. Children have benefited from their use and go on to use them on their children because of it. The Royal Family in England has always used them, as is the case in multitudes of countries. This country has tried for years, to eliminate them, because they have vested interests in pharmaceutical products, and Homeopathy cuts into their profits. But they work, without harmful side effects…allopathic products will never be able to make that same claim.
The amounts of fluoride in our water supply are WAY higher than the amounts of belladonna in homeopathic treatments. What is worse, there is no limit on the amount of water we drink in a day so it’s impossible to know how much fluoride we are getting at any given time. Talk about unregulated and dangerous!
Jessica– Apples and oranges, dear. Homeopathic remedies are prepared medications. Our drinking water isn’t a prepared tincture. “In the US, municipal water is fluorinated to a concentration of 0.7 to 1.2 parts per million (ppm)”. See “red flag #2” to complete the thought and come to your own conclusions.
Megan. Thank you for your “Spot on” report. I read it while holding my breath. Just brilliant. I wish more people would use their brains the way you do!
If more people used their brains this way, the human race would be extinct. Do you even know what Belladonna is? Do you know what “homeopathic” means? (hint – it’s bullshit – homeopathy basically says that if you put one shot of booze in a swimming pool that actually makes the booze stronger).
I can see why you think homeopathy is bullshit if you come up with such ludicrous analogies. Remedies don’t become “stronger” simply by dilution; there’s also a process of succussion through which they must go. What becomes stronger is the energy of the substance — animal, plant, or mineral — that makes up the remedy. This isn’t biochemistry, folks, so stop arguing about it as if it were.
And, yes, homeopathy definitely works, as you’d see if you experienced it. Or saw an infant or animal treated by a good homeopath. There’s no possibility of a placebo response in either of those groups.
I really don’t understand succussion. If you vigorously shake something, yes, the kinetic energy of the mixture will increase as you are shaking it. However, once you stop shaking it, that energy will revert back to potential energy (which was there all long and was only converted to kinetic energy temporarily due to the shaking) so the total amount of energy in the mixture, at least according to the laws of physics, cannot increase as energy cannot be created or destroyed. I feel like the implication is that succussion somehow increases the amount of energy present in the materials, but that violates the Law of Conservation of Energy, which has shown us that energy cannot be created or destroyed. Also, a solution that is so dilute as to not contain any molecules of the substance being diluted can’t even have energy transferred to it, as it is not present. I guess I just don’t get it.
Ronald Whitmont is an MD board certified in internal medicine and a homeopath. http://www.homeopathicmd.com/about-us/ I would say he knows a little more about homeopathy and Belladonna than what you gleaned from wikipedia or quackwatch. You are going to have to dig a little deeper than those fallacious sources with an obvious Negative Point of View.
It’s a shame you are pitting your children, and readers, against what you think is best over what pediatrician and experts recommend. All because they worked for you and your child had no ill effects. The same can be said for millions of children who have suffered no ill effects with vaccinations. The vast majority of pediatricians recommed against the use of these teething tablets for a reason and it’s not because they are in cahoots with the FDA. You are being irresponsible for slamming the experts and claiming yourself these tablets are safe. Of course, you would know more than any other expert, right?
And dig a little deeper my dear, googling won’t bring up the research studies but investigating the studies the journals have published will. Unfortunately those aren’t free so I guess you just settled for the free content instead. Ridiculous.
I’ll also remind all you experts of homeopathy that opium, cocaine, nitric acid and turpentine (yes ingested turpentine) were all recommended homeopathic therapies for decades. Science expands as well as the information and education of humans. Don’t claim that homeopathic remedies are the end all be all, they have caused hundreds of thousands of fatalities over the history of time. When experts warn against the use of a treatment, instead of digging your heels in and being stubborn, try listening with an open mind.
You should take your own advice and “do more science”. Your pediatricians and so-called experts, don’t even do more science…they just repeat the lies they’ve been hearing, thinking that because it comes from the CDC, it must be gospel. The doctors, pediatricians, neurologists, virologists, immunologists, scientists, and even nurses that have studied beyond what the CDC says, have come away shocked by what they’ve uncovered. There is FRAUD within the CDC and the drug companies, and they’ve been lying.
Vaccines have even been deemed “Unavoidable Unsafe” by the Supreme Court, so a law was passed in 1986, taking away ALL liability from the drug companies and the doctors that administer vaccines.
Just because a child doesn’t end up with Autism, doesn’t mean that they haven’t had any “ill effects”. The ingredients in vaccines can cause brain inflammation, autoimmune diseases, learning and behavioral problems, asthma, allergic reactions and childhood cancers…all of which have increased along with the increase in the vaccine schedule. Some things are too much of a coincidence…to be a coincidence. Plus, there is DNA from aborted fetuses in vaccines…when you add foreign DNA to existing DNA, you forever alter the original DNA, and that child is therefore altered.
We’ve all been doing exhaustive research for years, so it sounds like it’s YOU that “needs to dig a little deeper my dear”!!
Well I did spend four years studying homeopathy and have five kids who all have teeth, and their father is a physician (who had no training on homeopathy by the way), and I do have a law degree, which puts me at a slight advantage for spotting these sorts of things. And for the record, I use Pub Med and the vast majority of pediatricians recommend teething tablets…at least they did until this lovely press release came out. I encourage parents to read between the lines – no matter what decision they come to. 😉
Oh, come on! It’s laughable that anyone who has the wisdom to embrace the illumination that Samuel Hahnemann imparted to this world will be moved in any way whatsoever by the gallant efforts of our white knights in satin, the spurious F…D…A.
And, yes, the carefully worded “warning” perfectly describes the oh-so-common vaccine reaction, but I don’t see the reporting information for VAERS anywhere on the FDA’s press release.
Frankly, I have never been a fan of the homeopathic “combo” remedies, because I prefer to use a single, well-indicated remedy. However, learning homeopathy takes time and a fair amount of skill, something that is no longer “allowed” in our caffeine-fueled, fear-driven society.
Allopathic foundations such as the FDA have been persecuting Homeopathy since its inception. The fact that Homeopathy has survived for over 200 years is a testament to its efficacy and safety. People do not use homeopathy because they “believe” in it; people use homeopathy because it works. And by “work”, I mean it corrects the condition that is producing the symptoms. The correction is permanent and constitutes a CURE. That is a far higher standard than allopathy subscribes to, which is mere suppression of symptoms.
Homeopathy is now the second leading system of medicine that is practiced in the world. Homeopathy does not rely on “faith”, only the appropriate application of its laws, which were determined through rigorous proving and observation. In contrast, allopathy relies exclusively on faith. How else would you describe a system of medicine that requires a patient to “consult with your healthcare provider” (i.e. a priest, or modern-day gatekeeper) to obtain your medication while simultaneously absolving itself of all responsibility in the instance of an adverse event? (Crooked and pathogenic are also terms that come to mind, but I’m trying to be nice.)
What happens when you take the “wrong” homeopathic remedy? Absolutely nothing.
What happens when you take the “right” remedy? A miracle.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/sciencebasedpharmacy.wordpress.com/2013/11/23/use-of-homeopathy-kills-child/amp/?client=safari
Or
Check out this link for happens when you take the “wrong” homeopathic medicine.
Great comment, just a few points (I am a qualified Heilkunstler & Homeopath). Combination remedies are often indicated for symptoms presenting that encompass both a tonic and pathic set of symptoms. (See the 6th Edition of Hahnemann’s Organon for the foundations on principle). Hahnemann himself used dual remedies once he illuminated the “two sides of disease”.
It is not entirely accurate to state that the “wrong remedy” produces no contraindication. Any remedy, in the right dosage, can produce symptoms, whether they are part of a proving or part of a healing reaction (not to be confused with a contraindication). Notwithstanding, Homeopathic Remedies/Medicines are largely and reliably safe and non-toxic.
🙏🏻
(To Heidi): Yes, please forgive me for taking liberties in an attempt to make a dramatic closing statement. My point was that it is far safer from a poisoning perspective to take a poorly-indicated homeopathic remedy (the “wrong” remedy) than it is to take a material dose of a substance that has known poisonous properties (like an allopathic “drug”). And when the appropriate remedy is given, often the results seem nothing short of miraculous.
(To everyone else commenting): As a mother of two (now 9 & 13) who has used Homeopathy almost exclusively for close to 20 years, I would like to see parents become more knowledgable about the indications for specific homeopathic remedies versus just picking up the combo remedies at the supermarket. Homeopathy has a wealth of applications for children’s ailments at all ages and there are so many great “starter” books on the market for people to become empowered and adept at promoting their family’s health.
I am also frankly astonished at the temerity of individuals who seem to go out of their way to (attempt to) contradict the content of a personal blog post. People are certainly entitled to their own opinions based on the research they have done, personal observations, the observations of other people that have occurred throughout history and have been meticulously recorded (such as the Organon and hundreds of other Homeopathy texts), and yes, even based on an intuitive or spiritual hunch.
If the wisdom that is imparted in Megan’s (awesome!) blog posts is offensive to you, then why are you here reading it? Do you simply have no control of your vomiting all over someone else’s work (there is a homeopathic remedy for that state) or do you truly believe that your patently false and smug one-liners are actually going to “save” us silly, poorly-informed, obviously delusional, and definitely narcissistic parents who prefer to raise their families outside of an invasive, suppressive, palliative, and ultimately unsustainable and rapidly deflating paradigm?
Good luck with that.
Love it as always, Megan. You’re awesome!
You lost me at vaccines. You say you like to base your decision off of facts and science? And yet you ignore the adundance of science proving vaccines are safe AND effective? Clearly you’ve only researched with a preconceived bias that vaccines are poison. The exact same thing you’re accusing the FDA of….
Hi Common Sense, Feel free to check out the citations.
Respectfully, Megan
The vaccine link you posted for a study linking vaccines to seizures actually concluded that vaccines do not cause seizures, and instead genetic causes are more likely the cause of seizures. Maybe look into your “research” a little more carefully.
No…it doesn’t. It points to the fact that vaccines trigger genetic predispositions. It’s called epigenetics. I read the research … not just the conclusions.
Respectfully,
Megan
I’d like to review those citations. Where can I find them?
Hyperlinked. 😉
After looking at the article you posted, it specifically states that the epilepsy that occurred around the time of the vaccines was due to pre-disposed genetic issues, not the vaccine. So I’m confused as to why you are citing it. Also, the amount of belladonna in these teething tablets is roughly the same as the amount of mercury/formaldehyde/aluminum in vaccines. Which is safe to ingest in the small amounts that are given. So i’m confused as to the hypocrisy. Don’t get me wrong, I agree that there should be a study conducted on the amount of vaccines given to children all at once, but spread out, they are safe. I also have read most of the vaccine inserts, and everything is laid out for you, including what not to mix it with and who should not receive it. So I’m not sure what your point is by citing that as well.
How are vaccines given? How are teething tablets taken?
Ingestion v. Injection
Secondly, the amount of belladonna in teething tablets is roughly the same as the amount of heavy metals in vaccines? Where did you get that?
I do agree that I wouldn’t be throwing away my teething tablets.
However, I did read your citations and got this directly from it: CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that in most cases, genetic or structural defects are the underlying cause of epilepsy with onset after vaccination, including both cases with preexistent encephalopathy or benign epilepsy with good outcome. These results have significant added value in counseling of parents of children with vaccination-related first seizures, and they might help to support public faith in vaccination programs.
I don’t see anything in that which concludes that the vaccine are at fault.
Allison,
I can’t possibly list all of the studies connecting vaccines to seizures but if you do your own search, you’ll find loads of data. The citation is valid, it’s well-known that vaccines can trigger genetic predispositions to all sorts of conditions. It’s called epigenetics. You can’t blame epilepsy on genetics alone when it was the vaccinations that triggered it. For future reference, I wouldn’t focus on just reading the conclusions – which hardly ever match the actual data when we’re talking vaccines. 😉
It sounds like the usual jargon used when the conclusion does not really want to put vaccines at any fault. Epilepsy can be triggered. In these cases it was triggered by vaccines. It may not ever been triggered. I do not see how this would put faith in public health. A documented side effect in almost all vaccine product monographs is encephalopathy, which can cause seizures.
Exactly.
Here is the link to the United States government vaccine adverse effects payouts. To date it is at 3.4 billion dollars.
http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/data/statisticsreport.pdf
I agree. The facts and science part threw me. When has there ever been randomized controlled trials showing the efficacy of homeopathic medicine that are statistically significant? If you know some, please list below, I would be intrigued.
Please check the Homeopathic Research Institute.
https://www.hri-research.org/hri-research/completed-projects/
Did you read the details at the hyperlink you posted? The ADHD study had 20 participants while the other one had 100. HRI itself says the results are not statistically significant. Where is the procedure for the RCT posted? In RCT control groups are given placebos – not merely ‘not treated with homeopathy’. Please find me one respectable mainstream publication that has anything good to say about homeopathy. And please get this notion that scientists are after homeopathy with an agenda out of your mind. If homeopathy works, our fundamental understanding of how the world works is wrong. Else, homeopathy doesn’t work and everything that science has made possible for us is still on girl scientific foundations. Think about the odds in an unbiased fashion.
You’ll find a good few here. That there are no RCTs in homeopathy is a myth https://www.hri-research.org/resources/research-databases/
Hi, Megan. In the section under Red Flag #3 where vaccine induced seizures are discussed, there is an embedded “Vaccine” link. This link redirects readers to a 2014 peer-reviewed study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics which concludes that in most cases, the incidence of seizures with onset after vaccination were attributed to a underlying and pre-existing genetic epileptic disorder, not the vaccines. The last line of the abstract states “These results . . . might help to support public faith in vaccination programs” (Verbeek et al., 2014). I would like for you to include evidence-based data that supports this argument in your blog rather than refute it.
Jaclyn, And what do you think triggered this “pre-existing genetic epileptic disorder?” A full moon? It’s called epigenetics and it’s well known that vaccines can trigger genetic predispositions to all sorts of disorders. Again, it’s important to read all of the data – verses just the conclusions, especially when you’re looking at anything vaccine. 😉
Respectfully,
Megan
You are awesome! Thank you for bringing up the vaccine situation. Sick and tired of people being so blind. The amount of trust people put into system is simply disturbing.
No credible researcher writes the conclusion of his or her study without it being founded on the methods, data analysis, and statistically significant results of the study. The researchers refer to “pre-existing” as existing prior to the vaccination, not due to post-vaccination gene modification (epigenetics). The vaccines did not change the gene function of these children, they only triggered seizures in 2.6 % of the cohort due to pre-existing underlying fever-sensitive seizure disorders (Dravet Syndrome, PCDH19 mutation) (Verbeek et al., 2014). Vaccines can cause a child to spike a fever and thus, the subsequent onset of the first seizure in those with undiagnosed epileptic disorders. Therefore, it is important to weight the risks and benefits of vaccination in children with these fever-sensitive epilepsies. Is a fever-induced seizure by vaccination (as well as every head cold in this child’s future) or infection with the potentially fatal measles virus due to decreasing herd immunity more harmful? This is a controversial situation that 2.6% of parents must make an informed decision on. The study’s researchers recommended genetic testing prior to vaccination as a viable option to detect these hereditary epilepsies in children with a family history of epileptic disorders.
No credible researcher [SHOULD write] the conclusion of his or her study without it being founded on the methods, data analysis, and statistically significant results of the study.
Jaclyn, et al, would encourage you to check out research done by Dr Judy Mikovitz
http://www.plaguethebook.com/judy-a.-mikovits–phd.html
and Dr Suzanne Humphries
http://drsuzanne.net/dr-suzanne-humphries-vaccines-vaccination/
This will challenge any “conventional” thinking & should provide at least a year’s worth of research/investigation if anyone is interested…
With respect, Heidi
If you believe vaccines are safe, you need to start petitioning your government. VAERS has paid out over 3 Billion Dollars for injuries and death. If these injuries and deaths do not exist, the government is involved in a huge fraud of taxpayers money. Or maybe, “safe and effective” is a pharmaceutical marketing slogan and not based in reality.
Actually, vaccines are labeled unavoidably unsafe by the Nation’s Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. This act absolves the manufacturing company and those who administer vaccines from liability for any injuries or deaths they cause. There is a special vaccine injury reporting agency, VAERS. If vaccines are effective, why are those vaccinated or pertussis spreading it? Why are there mumps outbreaks at colleges in fully vaccinated populations, even in those getting “booster shots”? Why is there a case for fraud abo ut the efficacy of the mumps vaccine pending? I think that you might have missed some information when seeking to support your safe and effective stance on vaccines. Please dig past the propaganda and find out the truth. Read a vaccine insert, and research the safety of the ingredients. You’ll be surprised by what they don’t tell you in those 10 sentences getting you to consent to being part of their experiment.
Please stop blindly buying into all the anti vac propaganda you have been reading. Here is an article that explains why some people may still get mumps even though they have been vaccinated. The facts in this article are supported by good, sound science and research.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/18/can-you-catch-mumps-if-youre-vaccinated_n_5174325.html
The Huffington Post is NOT a credible source…they have an agenda. Even the package inserts from vaccines say that one of the side effects of the vaccines may be the very virus contained in the vaccine. You’re grasping at straws and your ascertains have long since been proven false. Keep up!
Amen!!! I was thinking the same thing. Great article, but lost me when she spouted untrue info about vaccines. Now the article seems nothing more than an antivaccine piece.
Yesssss🙌🏼 Literally took the words out of my mouth!
Common Sense: There are no studies that show vaccines to be safe or effective…although the CDC and some doctors untruthfully say there are. Ask to see the ingredients list in the package inserts, and if you’re okay with formaldehyde, DNA from aborted babies, aluminum, detergent, MSG, antibiotics, Polysorbate 80, etc. being injected into you and yours…well, there’s just no common sense in that, but you have that right.
In fact, the Supreme Court has deemed vaccines “Unavoidably Unsafe”, and therefore, a law was passed in 1986, stating that no one can sue the Pharmaceutical companies or doctors, for the damage that vaccines will and have caused to so many children and adults. So, with no repercussions for their toxic, heavy metals-filled, carcinogenic vaccines, they have no incentive to make any safe vaccines…but they should be held accountable for what they’ve done.
Trust them if you want, but the rest of us won’t. We’ve done too much research to believe the lying propaganda. Their are so many doctors, scientists, virologists, immunologists, and other specialists that are sounding the warning about the damage caused by vaccines. That’s the reality of it.
You can attempt to argue that vaccines are effective, but if you really believe they are safe, you are definitely not paying attention.
I have worked as a medical assistant for 4 years, with the same doctor at a small town pediatric clinic. If I had a dollar for every time someone came in with a seizure related to a vaccine, after 4 years, if have $0!!!
There is also plenty of science proving vaccines are unsafe. You are probably that parent that says I vaccinated my children and they are fine. Here’s the thing either yes they truly are healthy children (which I deeply pray they are) and have beat the odds or they are injured and you haven’t realized the connection. I dare you to look a mother in the eye of a child that was perfectly fine and now suffers from seizures daily and tell her vaccines are scientifically proven to be safe. Look a mother in the eye of a child who wouldn’t stop crying after receiving a vaccine and then passed two days later from brain swelling and complications from a vaccine you believe has been proven safe. Have you read the risks from the actual vaccine insert? Not the 5th grade reading level one page flyer they give you. The ingredients? Check those out too. You’d be surprised what is being pumped into the bodies of our perfectly created babies. But then again our government just loves the heck out of us and only wants the best for us!!!
I won’t be tossing my tablets as there isn’t any substance to the FDA’s press release, but I’m not going to assume I know what the FDA’s motivation for this communication. If you’re going to consider possible motivations, I suggest considering all of them. To jump to this one particular conclusion based on your personal assumptions and biases is misleading to your readers.
Yes! I had the same thought.
It is sad that an agency that we are supposed to be able to trust is so untrustworthy, you have to do your own research if you want the truth. I will never trust the FDA or CDC, for that matter, ever again. They should be held accountable for all their propaganda.
I started off with a child with medically induced immune issues (vaccines and over-use of antibiotics). My first exploration in natural health care was using herbal remedies and nutrition. Also we followed an elimination of allergic foods diet. This helped so much, but once I discovered single homeopathic remedies for home use, I never looked back. It was like finding the owner’s manual for kids. You can do other things in conjunction. There is so much in the natural remedy treasure chest to choose from. Later I studied Bio-therapeutic drainage, so I went with homeopathics primarily.
When I left the herd I NEVER worried about illness. I always had an ace up my sleeve. To stop doing drug therapy on your kids is the first part of the choice. Getting busy and learning other resources and doing more of that is the other part of the equation. This is a huge learning curve, but it is essential for families to gain this level of autonomy to be functionally pro-active in their health care.
I find it really hard to consider any medical treatment that nobody stands behind; not a doctor, not the government, not the manufacturer. The only ones taking responsibility is the parents; the people who have the most to lose. Everybody else goes to the bank. This doesn’t sit well with me.
Modern conventional dependency seems to require people who don’t think for themselves. When we do, we give ourselves permission to ask if there is something better. The warning for homeopathic teething products being dangerous; the warning here is from an industry that is afraid of losing market-share. They have reason to be scared.
So completely and totally agree!
FDA ( approved indeed) should ban all “allopathic “drugs since they ALL have side effects. ALL.. The pathogens are going to have a field day soon as they becoming resistant to the so call FDA approved antibiotics. a time is coming when all the FDA approved medicines will be shunted aside and the suffering crowd will switch to safer and effective homeopathic medicines, even those in the panel and those making them will HAVE to stop taking the so called FDA approved drugs. Wake up FDA ! you are there to help mankind, not kill them. If you asked all the persons using FDA approved drugs to report the side effects… whats going to happen… guess !
Amen. We’d be fools to think that they aren’t concerned about the bottom line. You cannot patent nature, and therefore, cannot make money off it like other treatments invented. We’ve done herbal medicine for the last 5 years, and it has transformed our lives. The FDA, and CDC, can stuff it. And for what it’s worth, I used to be a Microbiologist before our 5 kids, completely on-board with all Western medicine, the most pro-vaccine person you’d ever find. It wasn’t until our 5th child developed croup and I started looking for alternative treatments to help him breathe that I started researching and researching. It was very hard for me to read all the research and literally turn away from everything that I had been trained and believed in. But I’ve never looked back.
My six kids and I have used these for 17+ years and aren’t stopping now. My 8 & 11 year olds still use them for those incoming grown up teeth.
may I ask, since you give them to older/verbal kids, how do they like the tablets? do they say it brings instant relief? just curious!
(no judgement, I’m giving them to my third, currently teething 5 month old)
My precious tot had a heck of a time with teething and hyland’s saved us!!!!!! We used tabs and Camilla gels and had no problems. Thanks for another great blog.