Parents ‘should discuss drugs with pharmacist’

Parents who have concerns over their child’s medication should discuss it with their pharmacist, a children’s charity has suggested.

Jody Blake, helpline manager for WellChild, suggested that local pharmacists are often underused as parents do not recognise the level of expertise they possess.

“Pharmacists are face-to-face and have the most up-to-date information and advice,” she explained.

When they have questions regarding medicine, parents should also consider consulting the information on the drug’s packaging as quite frequently there will be a helpline staffed by the pharmaceutical provider, Ms Blake continued.

She highlighted that many recent concerns over cough syrups have resulted from parents not fully understanding that such symptom alleviators are medicines and contain paracetamol.

Last week the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency requested that some cough syrup medicines be withdrawn for sale until they are labelled with warnings highlighting their lack of suitability for children.

The move came following research which suggested children were being given excessive medicines for sicknesses which would get better naturally.