Pharmacists

[Rondar2001]

So my daughter has a cold. We went to the drug store and I brought a bottle of cold medicine up to the counter. The label looked ok, but I asked the pharmacist if it was gluten free. His response was that all liquid medicines are gluten free and they only ever use gluten to hold the tablets together. Oh, and any amount in a tablet would be small enough that someone with celiac disease wouldn't have a problem.

Guess it's time to find a new pharmacy.

[JennyC]

In general, I have found that pharmacists do not have any special information regarding gluten status. They normally read the package insert for the ingredients. It almost always contains natural flavors, so I get the number of the drug manufacturer and call them myself. I have not yet found a medication to contain gluten, but that's not to say that they are not out there. I always try to call over the counter drug manufacturers before the cold season starts. I generally stick with Tylenol or sometimes Motrin products, since I know that they do not add any gluten ingredients. If you call these companies they will give you a small list of gluten free products because they only select a few products to be tested for gluten, but they do not add gluten to any of their products.

I hope this helps.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

You're right, that pharmacist sounded very un-knowledgable!

He also should have told you that cold medicines actually aren't recommended for young children any more.

When you think about it, probably nobody should take them--they do mask or partially stop the symptoms of a cold somewhat, but those symptoms, while annoying, are actually doing a job--they remove the replicating virus from your system. If you stifle those symptoms, the virus stays in your system longer. Plus, because you're not blowing your nose every 20 seconds, you feel like you can go out and about, so you do--spreading your germs with each exhalation! (Which most of us do anyway, even without cold meds, at least I do, because I get in trouble for not showing up at work unless I'm practically dying).

Same thing with medicating a fever, by the way--the fever is doing a job, killing viruses and bacteria. Lower the fever, and the viruses multiply, and the illnesses last longer.

Our pediatrician now recommends avoiding cold meds and Tylenol for feversunless the symptoms are so so severe that he thinks that the ER is the next step. He does recommend Tylenol for headaches, but suggested that we try half doses. Guess what--half doses worked just fine.

I didn't grow up with cold medicine, but when I was in college, all my friends took it, so I did, too. I thought that I was just a whole lot sicker in college, or that the germs were stronger, or something. Imagine my surprise when I stoped taking cold medicine--and found that my colds weren't nearly as severe WITHOUT it!

Chalk another one up to the pharmaceutical company's marketing team. They're brilliant. 7 shelves of cold meds just at the grocery store, and not one of them cures the cold, but most of us think we NEED them.