Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comAll infant Tylenol recalled due to new bottle flaw
Seeded on Fri Feb 17, 2012 9:01 AM EST (msnbc.com)
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Maybe Johnson & Johnson should just get out of the medication business since they cant seem to do it properly.
There isnt any problem with the medication at all, it lies with the user. People are pushing in the protective cover. Now it does not say if the cover is faulty but the medication can be used as long as the cover stays in place.
How about they start recalling infant Tylenol for worthless labeling instead? The dosage instructions literally say, for children under 2 years of age, consult a physician. So it's designed for infants, but they refuse to give a dosage for infants?? If you're going to have to consult a physician, it might as well be sold by prescription.
I think parents are more likely to "guess" than consult a physician for $150 (or hundreds more, if it's the middle of the night and the only physicians available are in the Emergency Room).
Dosing of any medication for children under 13 years of age is based on weight. With infants (under 2), the dose can literally change from week to week, making accurate dosing a pill (pun intended). What you are askign them to do is print a table based on bmi for infants on each bottle, which would require size negative 4 font to do properly. Its easier to just say "call a doctor".
No, the dosages are incremental. You don't add another drop of medicine each time your baby gains a pound; you continue with the previous dosage until they reach the next bracket. So yes, your baby is getting slightly less medicine than he can tolerate as he grows to the end of his weight bracket, but it's typically still enough to reduce a fever.
These dosage charts are provided each time a child gets immunizations, but for a new parent who hasn't gotten one, or who doesn't keep track of paperwork like that, it makes sense to include it on the Tylenol label itself.
I agree, may be Johnson & Johnson SHOULD get out of the Tylenol business, BECAUSE PARENTS ARE TO STUPID TO FOLLOW DIRECTIONS. When and IF ADULTS become intelligent enough to read directions AND NOT TRY TO CIRCUMVENT THEM they should be able TO HAVE CHILDREN. Any idiot can screw, but to be a parent REQUIRES INTELLIGENCE.
My wife and I have used this product with no problems. Some people on this planet are just plain stupid.
It's unfortunate you have to design products to be idiot-proof, yet even the idiots of the world figure out how to screw it up.
Why remove the product...just throw a sticker on the product that says "morons - don't use this product."
thats why mcdonalds has to put cautuion contents hot on their hot coffee cups no common sense in the world.
Ahhh daaa what did he say?
Okay Amy, but at least familiarize yourself with the case before you ridicule it. Then your comment would read something like, "Caution: contents may be over 212 degrees, which is the natural boiling point of water, because we sometimes heat it under pressure to exceed that temperature so that our coffee stays fresh longer, even after multiple orders by the state health department not to do so."
Your typical fresh-from-the-pot coffee is not hot enough to cause 3rd degree burns when it spills in your lap.
Of course, this is the same world where the tag on the hair dryer says, "DO NOT USE IN SHOWER"
You hit it right on the head!
@Amy Salem Apparently in our society it pays very well to be stupid. bit how much does it cost the rest of us?
You can't fix stupid!
No but you could stop the spread of it. Free spading and neutering!! I'll pay for that!
It's also the same world where safety instructions for a chainsaw state, "Do NOT use near your genital region."
TRUE!!!!!
Amy @2.1 - The woman required hospitalization and skin grafts. She died before she totally recovered from her injuries.
JLM @2.3 - Thanks for knowing something about it! I wish everyone investigated a little more.
Johnson and Johnson..didn't they have a boycott of their baby shampoo due to carcinogens? Why is it that when there is a recall, it's ALWAYS them.
BTW- I buy Infant Triaminic Acetaminophen drops for my kid and have never had a problem with the dosing or the bottle. It's a good alternative if people are in need of one. But then, as another poster stated, stupid people couldn't pour pee out of a boot if the directions were written on the heel.
Problem is Triaminic recently had a recall several of their childrens products , do to the fact their product was causing bleeds in the brain and strokes. But its ok their still showing a profit.
I think his point was that strokes and brain bleeding are nothing compared to the inconvenience of a poorly designed bottle.
Was J & J "boycotted" over carcinogens in their baby shampoo? Or was it a "recall"? Pretty big difference!
I love the new design. It's too bad they are pulling it.
HMMM... outsourcing was a more cost effective alternative? Tell me, J&J.. how much have you saved with all of these recalls?
sad thing they were made in america not italy like it said
Now you see why companies outsource.
Amy -- what was made in America? Infant Tylenol? Is the article wrong, then?
The article said it was made in Italy. Can't deny that. However, this sounds like a design problem at the moment, not a manufacturing issue. The question is was the designer outsourced too?
Branden -- perhaps that is the better question. But if Amy thought that infant Tylenol was made in America, that is either an assertion that she knows the article to be wrong, or proves that she is one of those brilliant people who has a need to comment upon articles that they haven't read, which is as useful as my reviews of movies that I've never seen would be.
This recall is due to a handful of morons pushing part of the protective cover into the bottle. It isn't due to outsourcing.
Geeze! J&J why can't they get it right??? It's one thing after another with them!
Again, this isn't J&J's fault. Read the article. Moronic consumers are damaging the bottles.
I'm with metomjr. If you can't follow simple directions, don't use the product. It's insane that J&J gets the blame for people who are too lazy to learn how to use a new system.
I'm not saying that babies don't need to be protected, and avoid accidental overdose, but parents need to step up and take some responsibility.
At one time you could TRUST Johnson and Johnson. Not any more. They have had way too many problems with many of their products lately. Especially ones for children.
not really its just parents have dumbed down thanks to our public school system that failed them.
Yeah, they no longer teach "how to siphon infant tylenol from a bottle" in Health class. What educational material do you think a person is lacking when the cover breaks off? Not enough calculus? Too little phonics?
Exactly. It's when they went to "whole language" from phonics. It's the same thing that caused the Toyota floor mats to hang up under the gas pedal -- the public schools! The public schools are also why McDonalds coffee used to be too hot, and in health class they never, NOY ONE SINGLE TIME, told me it was a bad idea to put it in between my legs! Screw suing McDonald's -- I'm going to sue my health teacher before he dies of old age!
Johnson and Johnson has had several recalls this year. Not just this one. Their shampoos were "tainted", especially the ones for children. I think they have become lax on their quality control. I live near a town that has the manufacturing plant and while at one time I had complete confidence in their products, I no longer do.
Tylenol has caused more liver failure than alcoholism.
...as a result of either not reading the label or taking it for a bender hangover while the liver is already running at max...
Citation, Richard?
right there on every bottle of acetaminophen there's a block of text that says "prolonged use may lead to liver damage". translation - "pop these pills like they're candy for days at a time or fail to follow the dosage information and you'll probably get liver damage".
what the label should say is "for every pill you take, the cytochrome p450 mixed mode oxidases in your hepatocytes will produce about 5% of NAPQI as a byproduct during normal detox that can lead to complications after prolonged doses due to intracellular accumulation overwhelming the glutathione antioxidant system. following the depletion, reactive oxygen species will move on to trash your liver, possibly leading to necrosis". that'll probably never be on put on though, given this country's love for science education and reading comprehension.
Well, "necrosis" is a little advanced for the general reading public, not to mention "intracellular", and "glutathione". But I'm glad to learn that "trashing your liver" is sufficently precise to be a valid scientific term, I'll remember that.
Richard that is because people are idiots, or they are just very confused on when to give their children tylenal. I run a daycare out of my home and out of the 4 people I work for, 3 of them want me to give tylenal for a lowgrade fever(lowgrade I mean under 100). CHildren to DO NOT need tylenol if the fever is 102 or lower. Even that is an iffy thing. I never give my child tylenal unless he is just down right miserable. If he has a fever of 102 but yet is still playing and acting close to normal he does not get it. People in this lovely US country are to fast to medicate for things that really don't need to be medicated for.
Stacie, I would argue that a temp up over 100 in children needs to be given something, tylenol or motrin. Sorry, just a professional opinion.
Beyond that I do agree 100% that we over medicate our children, antibiotics for everything even a cold, hmmm...... wonder how that works.
I was requesting a citation for the claim that acetaminophen causes more liver damage than alcoholism, but I love your post dblhelix! That label has my approval!
trust me, i too wouldn't mind seeing a peer reviewed article showing tylenol destroys more livers singlehandedly than alcohol alone. then again, i'd also love to see the statistics of liver failure due to tylenol in combination with other things. chronic usage, alcohol intake, ingestion with other daily drugs, etc.
i mean sometimes the drug is to blame, there are cases such as those. but at the same time, it's just irritating when people rally against a drug (tylenol being one of the new favorites) that has a "follow the dosage instructions or something bad might happen" label then throw a fit when they don't follow it and that bad thing happens.
Myers RP, Shaheen AA, Li B, Dean S, & Quan H. (2008). Impact of liver disease, alcohol abuse, and unintentional ingestions on the outcomes of acetaminophen overdose. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology : the Official Clinical Practice Journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. 6(8), 918-25; quiz 837.
ask, and ye shall receive.
it is a shame that the company must "take the blame" for people not knowing how to pour a liquid into a small measuring cup. I put the blame a little on J&J because they tried to make something "easier" which often complicates the issue and confuses people. Put the liquid in a bottle, provide a cup to measure it, make it "child proof" to prevent drinking by an unsupervised kid, and it should work fine. It is all about the KISS principle - Keep It Simple Stupid!
You're a nurse and a med student, and you think infant tylenol is poured into a cup? Yeah, because infants are so great at drinking from cups... not. It comes in a dropper that squirts into the infant's cheek.
Please don't tell me you're a wanna-be pediatrician too.
ACTUALLY JLM, one day old infants are capable from drinking from a cup. Specifically a small medicine cup. With appropriate help from a smart parent, this has been done for years by woman who want to supplement a breast fed baby and not introduce a bottle. Love how you are so quick to judge and criticize something you evidently know nothing about.. I hope this person is a "wanna-be pediatrician"!
Bottles and droppers are designed to accommodate an infant's sucking reflex, which is a natural, safe and easy way to introduce fluids to a baby. Pouring fluid into a one-day-old infant's mouth from a cup requires fighting the baby's instinctive resistance, carefully monitoring the flow rate to prevent choking, and giving up on precision since much of it will get spilled or spit up. I'm sure it has been done, but it's not the preferred method, and involves a lot more hassle and multi-tasking to force on a baby. Furthermore, it's just not how infant medicine is packaged - which shows that the alleged nurse/med student is not even familiar with infant medicines (or he/she would have known that Johnson & Johnson sells it with droppers, not cups).
I read a very extensive article about the recalls over the last decade or so. Many of the problems from the recalls stem from the companies J&J have procured. It IS in fact J&J's responsibility to enforce FDA sanctions on their own company extensions but J&J is so massive that we as people rarely even notice we're buying J&J products. The same goes for Unilever, watch the commercials and look in the corner about whos product it actually is. The following is from Wikipedia.
Johnson & Johnson is a highly diversified company with at least 230 subsidiaries, which it refers to as the "Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies". Some of these subsidiaries include as follows:
And the problem is???
rich norman:
The problem is monopolies. Too few competitors to make consumer products better and safer.
The problem is......too many parents rely on drugs when their kids get sick......is there anyone out there who remembers: rest, chicken soup, a box of tissues, and a bit of extra hugs, kisses, and snuggling?????
The problem is that as companies get bigger and bigger (like J&J) they get harder and harder to manage. J&J used to stand for quality. Of course, that's when they were smaller. The list above has only 45 of J&J's 230 subsidiaries! J&J has gotten too greedy, or they have fallen inot the trap of believing the old adage that bigger is better.
Loved how the companies were "procured". That's about right, isn't it? Their investment bankers pimped them out, and Big Daddy High Roller J & J said, "Come on, get in the car, girls, we'll get it on! Party all the time!" Of course, that's management -- bet the workers got screwed, all right! Hope that they used K-Y, since they're the ones that make it.
I am already working on a pacifier bong.
Sooner or later these infants will be using medical marijuana. The over the counter stuff is just too dangerous now.
made in italy garbo , why can't they make it in USA
Let them continue to make it in Italy, at least if they screw up people are held acountable, here the executives get bonues, watch a documentary "Blue Vinyl".
because it's a multinational company and, by definition, has production resources in other countries?
When parents inserted a syringe into the bottle, some parents accidentally pushed a protective cover inside, and... what? Did it give a double does? A triple dose? What? How evasive. Toss the drugs in the trash and ask your greatgrandmother what to do.
Here's the first hint: try to find something that doesn't contain acetamenophen and save their little livers. Also, not asprin as that could cause Reye's syndrome. Could children's ibuprofen be the right choice? Do they even make infant-strength Advi or Motrin?
They do, but my pedi cautioned against it until 6 months to 8 months old. Apparently, it has a higher risk of allergy and adverse reactions then tylenol and it's harder to notice adverse reactions in a small infant.
Artificial hips? How does one recall something like that!
Go back to using the eye dropper, It worked for yrs. and yrs. I had no problem using it on my girls when they were younger. Sometimes the old way is the best.
It is not J & J's fault... Some people have difficulty with dosing under the beat of conditions. When a parent has to awaken in the middle of the night to give a dose to a crying baby it is even nore difficult. Even when you can idiot proof a container a new idot comes along and proves the design wrong:) Once I slipped on a slip proof bath mat! LOL!
Oh my God! Half a million bottles, the entire supply, because of a few complaints about some bottle "problem"? And we wonder why prices on things go up in this country. A lawsuit here, a complaint there. Manufacturers then have to spend millions of dollars to change some odd little item. Like the person said, use a freaking medicine dropper! How hard can that be. They come with little markings to show you how much you're giving. Gees..........
Maybe I'm just getting old and cranky, but sometimes I feel like some people are just plain idiots. READ the LABEL. It is in English. LOOK at the dosing spoon or cup or whatever. DETERMINE ahead of time where the medication should be and over or under what line.
My God! How hard is it to pour out or draw up a syringe 5 or 10 or 15 ml or whatever the amount may be. How do these people survive day to day living. My theory is they are too busy texting and facebooking and flapping their jaws and not taking a few seconds to pay proper attention to giving medication to AN INFANT.
Step away from the cell phone. Believe it or not you ARE NOT THAT IMPORTANT.
Bravo
Guess I am old and cranky too Voice... How fricking stupid are people?
Voice of Wisdom, please review your first paragraph! The instructions are in ENGLISH! How can we reasonably expect people to be able to READ them? The instructions must be given in 47 different languages because in AMERICA, we cannot agree that ENGLISH should be taught as a FIRST language and that ENGLISH is the OFFICIAL LANGUAGE of the UNITED STATES!
Second, you cannot make anything "IDIOT PROOF"! We are producing more and better idiots every day. The most we can hope for is "IDIOT RESISTANT" and hope for a little extra chlorine in the gene pool and a new filter!
Third, anyone that is not fully awake and aware of exactly what they are doing in the middle of the night with a crying infant that is sick has ABSOLUTELY NO BUSINESS trying to medicate a small infant!!!
Fourth, In the United States, people have been deemed to stupid to do or think for themselves. They are never to blame for their actions, no matter how stupid and irresponsible they may be! Hence shows like "JACKASS". Companies or the GOVERNMENT must tell them what to do and when to do it! Don't worry, "THE GOVERNMENT WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU!" Just as the citizens of Greece and Portugal how that is working out for them!
A company tries to provide a medication in a manner that is easier to dispense, but unfortunately we live in a society that will spend more time researching the latest communications technology for their phone so they can download an app to get them from the living room to the bathroom with the least number of steps than they will on reading the directions on a medicine bottle for their sick child!
Voice of Wisdom, please review your first paragraph! The instructions are in ENGLISH! How can we reasonably expect people to be able to READ them? The instructions must be given in 47 different languages because in AMERICA, we cannot agree that ENGLISH should be taught as a FIRST language and that ENGLISH is the OFFICIAL LANGUAGE of the UNITED STATES!
Second, you cannot make anything "IDIOT PROOF"! We are producing more and better idiots every day. The most we can hope for is "IDIOT RESISTANT" and hope for a little extra chlorine in the gene pool and a new filter!
Third, anyone that is not fully awake and aware of exactly what they are doing in the middle of the night with a crying infant that is sick has ABSOLUTELY NO BUSINESS trying to medicate a small infant!!!
Fourth, In the United States, people have been deemed to stupid to do or think for themselves. They are never to blame for their actions, no matter how stupid and irresponsible they may be! Hence shows like "JACKASS". Companies or the GOVERNMENT must tell them what to do and when to do it! Don't worry, "THE GOVERNMENT WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU!" Just as the citizens of Greece and Portugal how that is working out for them!
A company tries to provide a medication in a manner that is easier to dispense, but unfortunately we live in a society that will spend more time researching the latest communications technology for their phone so they can download an app to get them from the living room to the bathroom with the least number of steps than they will on reading the directions on a medicine bottle for their sick child!
Thank you. Yes, think ahead, look at the bottle before you need to give it. Know basic household measurement, take your time, realize this is important for your child's safety. Also, know what you are giving...tylenol, acetaminophen, ibuprofen. It's right there on the bottle along with the concentration (100mg/5ml, etc). The name of the drug is not "infant pain reliever" like my patient's mom kept insisting yesterday.
Thank you. Yes, think ahead, look at the bottle before you need to give it. Know basic household measurement, take your time, realize this is important for your child's safety. Also, know what you are giving...tylenol, acetaminophen, ibuprofen. It's right there on the bottle along with the concentration (100mg/5ml, etc). The name of the drug is not "infant pain reliever" like my patient's mom kept insisting yesterday.
they're just going to sell it in mexico and china with new labels now anyway. i have used this with my daughter and there is no logical explanation for recalling every single one they should just send the families that had a problem a coupon for a new bottle and a pecentage off of another product but they already made their money on it anyway.
This here recall is just another socialist attempt by them Demeecrats and libeyrals to take money away from them good rich folk who'r'n only trying to get more money. I wanna be rich like those rich folk them Demeecrats and libeyrals are trying' to take money away from. I wanna be rich. Like all them folk in China and such good places.
I need Tylenol after reading this.
That's good'n you need some Tylenol! You give more money to them rich folk! They're'be'en good folk! Not like them socialists who want to take money away from rich folk and China! Dirty commies.
Wow, Jerry, thanks for injecting politics into a discussion on children's health. That's what MSNBC needs -- more partisanship!
Johnson and Johnson needs to move all of it's offices, including Headquarters overseas and apply to the FDA to import their poison products into the United States. They don't pay taxes here or employ a significant workforce and they are putting a strain on our product supply by constantly having to recall defective baby food, formula, soap and now acetaminophen. Enough is enough. Let the store brands fill the void . . . you never hear of a recall of the generics.
Sure you do, or at least I have. As they are not usually made by big-time, famous name companies it's not much of a media story, and you may find out about it from postings in the stores where the products were sold.
Tylenol caused me healtlh problems... it contributed to my liver failure... I had to have a liver transplant...
Not to be overly personal, but care to share the other contributing factors?
Thankfully, it was not anything serious. It's better to catch things before they happen.
Back to the same quality control issues we always have when we import products. Make the stuff in the United States of America. Quit importing our food, manufactured goods and medicine