Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Update on sugar-free meds

If you read this post, you'll recall that I decided to contact the makers of Infant's Tylenol and Infant's Motrin Ibuprofen about not having a sugar-free product for infants. So far I have only heard back from Johnson & Johnson (makers of Motrin).

They sent me an email about two days after I contacted them; asking me to call their 800 number so they could talk to me personally. I took this as a pretty good sign, but didn't call right away and even got a follow-up email. So I called them yesterday and think I confused the heck out of the customer service guy.

I explained my issue, and he started asking about what happened when I gave the drops to my daughter. I told him that the only time she had received the drops was in the ER when she had a fever. He asked me if I'd ever actually purchased Infant's Motrin.

Sighing, I explained that I don't purchase them because they don't have a sugar-free product which is why I'm calling in the first place. He really seemed perplexed that I didn't own the "product in question".

He then started asking about how much it raised her BG when she was in the ER, and I think I made his head explode when I tried to tell him that it's impossible to know how much the Motrin raised her BG, because she was ill at the time which makes her BG high, anyway. He wanted to know how I knew it affected her BG.

Sigh.

I explained that the flavouring in the drops had sugar, and that sugar will always raise my daughter's BG because she has diabetes (he already knew about the diabetes). I seriously thought I was going to have to explain to this guy all the inner-workings of the disease.

After a good 15 minutes of questioning, he mercifully let me go, promising that my email had been forwarded to the marketing department. So that's something... I guess.

2 comments:

  1. Wouldn't it be so nice if we could always know exactly how much what amount of sugar would raise BG?

    That would be nice.

    But, so would sugar free Tyleno/Motrin...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Actually, I have spent a good deal of time on this issue. According to McNeil, manufacturer of Tylenol, the big issue in the US is aspartame and it's "possible" adverse effects on INFANTS. Although, many US drug producers market all sorts of sugar free infant OTC's in the UK. Anyway, I have requested a carb count for "regular" infant meds used for pain relief and fever. I wonder what answer I will get now?

    ReplyDelete

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