Generally, overseas shopping drugs are marked with packages and instructions in local languages, so parents who are not familiar with foreign languages may not be able to understand all the information and specific usage of the drugs they buy, nor can they get professional guidance from doctors and pharmacists.
Many families choose to travel abroad during the small and long holidays that have just ended. In addition to all kinds of daily necessities, children's medicines are now included in the purchase list. Japan's "Bread Superman", Germany's "Little Green Leaf"... After all, children's colds, fever and coughs are common in life, so some reputable overseas children's medicines have become regular medicines for some families.
Nowadays, many people will choose to buy drugs online. "Safe, effective, and free from side effects" is a major selling point of many online stores. Many parents also believe that these drugs can be used more safely for children. Is that really the case? Will there be some unknown risks in these overseas drugs?
Foreign drugs do not have small side effects
When it comes to household medicines, according to Huang Jianquan, deputy chief pharmacist of the Pharmacy Department of Shanghai Children's Hospital, they can be divided into two categories. One is the treatment drugs for common colds, coughs, fever, diarrhea and rashes that can be treated at home, and the other is some simple topical drugs for trauma disinfection, sterilization and Band Aids.
"Theoretically, there is basically no racial difference between East and West in these commonly used drugs. Foreign children can use them, as can Chinese children. As for side effects, whether they are domestic or imported, they are equally inevitable. Parents and friends should never believe that the side effects of foreign drugs are small, let alone that natural drugs have no side effects. " Huang Jianquan said that traditional Chinese medicine is also a natural medicine, but the side effects reported by traditional Chinese medicine are not uncommon.
As for the hidden risks of drugs, Huang Jianquan explained that it was related to the characteristics of the drugs themselves, but not to the origin of the drugs. Taking compound cold medicine as an example, its risk is relatively small for adults, but it is a high-risk drug for children, and Bread Superman belongs to this category.
At present, the "Bread Superman" produced in Japan mainly has three kinds of packaging: red, green and blue. The green packaging is mainly for allergies and runny nose in cold symptoms; The red clothes mainly aim at the fever, allergy, runny nose and other problems in cold symptoms, and also have a certain antitussive effect; The blue clothes are mainly used for relieving cough and phlegm, relieving allergic runny nose. "That is to say, the red and blue clothes basically contain the role of the green clothes, and then the red and blue clothes have mutually inclusive roles. This is the characteristic of compound cold medicine, and it is also the risk of compound cold medicine, that is, it is easy to lead to repeated use of drugs." Huang Jianquan said, do you still know how to choose when such a complex problem is faced by parents, Not to mention the elderly at home.
It is particularly worth mentioning that the effective ingredients of the "bread superman" in blue include dihydrocodeine phosphate, methyl ephedrine, chlorphenamine maleate, etc. The first is the central antitussive ingredient codeine. This ingredient can directly inhibit the cough center of the medulla oblongata, and its antitussive effect is rapid and powerful, with the effect intensity about 1/4 of that of morphine. At the beginning of 2017, China's drug regulatory authorities required all drugs containing codeine to modify the instructions and explicitly prohibited them from being used for children under 12 years of age. Other "Bread Superman" cold potions also contain ephedrine, acetaminophen and other ingredients, among which ephedrine has the effect of contracting capillaries, so children should be very careful when using it.
There are some hidden dangers that cannot be ignored
Like Bread Superman, the so-called "Little Green Leaf" is not without risks. This cough medicine produced by a German company, whose real trade name is Prospan, is mainly composed of ivy leaf extract. A popular science article on a well-known parenting platform pointed out that the instructions of "Little Green Leaf" showed that the drug used 30% ethanol as the solvent to extract natural drugs, and it was particularly emphasized that the liquid medicine contained 47% ethanol.
Some experts in the industry said that if you drink "Little Green Leaf" and take cephalosporin antibiotics at the same time, there may be a potential safety hazard of disulfiram like reaction for children with serious alcohol metabolism disorders. In addition, under the item of side effects in the instruction manual of "Little Green Leaf", it is clearly stated that the drug may cause allergic reactions, such as dyspnea, capillary pulsation, rash, urticaria, etc., and may also cause gastrointestinal discomfort such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, etc. Especially if the dosage is too large, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea are more likely to occur, which is not very safe as the Internet or sellers boast No side effects.
"In fact, the bigger problem is that if we use overseas shopping drugs that have not been approved by China for marketing, it will bring more problems and hidden dangers," said an industry person who did not want to be named. In this regard, Wang Xiaoling from the Pharmacy Department of Beijing Children's Hospital said that the first problem was that the instructions or labels on the drug packaging were difficult to understand.
In addition, Wang Xiaoling said that the quality of overseas shopping drugs is also difficult to guarantee. Some drugs have special requirements for temperature, humidity and other conditions during storage and transportation, but the transportation conditions in the general overseas shopping process are difficult to meet these requirements, or because the self purchaser does not pay attention to these special requirements, it may lead to quality problems of drugs.
In this regard, Huang Jianquan believes that only those qualified as professional doctors, that is, doctors, can prescribe drugs. If a doctor provides a treatment plan for a patient, but the patient does not buy drugs from the hospital, but buys drugs from outside (drugs that are not officially approved in China), once serious adverse reactions of drugs occur, The doctor may not be able to judge whether the treatment scheme or the drug itself is faulty, thus adding uncontrollability to the treatment of patients.
There are relatively few children's dosage forms in China
"In terms of basic therapeutic drugs, there is not much difference at home and abroad, but there are relatively few children's dosage forms at home, but many drugs without children's dosage forms can not be underestimated." Huang Jianquan said, for example, vitamin B1 tablets, one tablet for adults at a time, what about 1-year-old children? If you use 1/2 of them, it's OK to cut them from the middle. If you use 1/5 of them, they are already very small. This 1/5 of them is really difficult for parents. If you meet grandparents, grandparents and children, you can't divide them with bad eyes.
Therefore, Huang Jianquan suggested that it is better to choose some dosage forms that are easy to divide dosage, such as oral liquid and granule, for the drugs prepared in the small medicine box at home. The volume of oral liquid can be measured according to the measuring cup, and a certain volume represents a certain dosage, so that parents can control the dosage; Granules are generally large in size, so it is easy to divide the dosage manually. For example, if infants use 2/3 bags, pour all the granules onto a piece of white paper, and then divide them into 3 equal parts, take 2 parts of melted water and feed them to the children, and the remaining 1 part can be bagged and clamped for next use. In addition, the granules and oral liquids are mostly sweet dosage forms, which are easier for children to accept.
Huang Jianquan said that at present, Canada, the United States, Australia and other major developed countries do a better job in the development of children's dosage forms of drugs than China. Therefore, if parents and friends want to go to these countries to prepare drugs for their children's small medicine boxes, they will have no problem, but they must know what drugs they bought from abroad, Don't buy it back without knowing what the medicine is for. It will be embarrassing.
"Finally, we need to pay attention to that the purchase channel must be formal in order to have safety and quality assurance. For example, the drugs purchased by relatives, friends or parents themselves in formal pharmacies abroad are more reliable. Whether the quality of other drugs purchased on behalf of WeChat merchants, overseas online shopping, etc. is guaranteed remains to be discussed. After all, it is medicine. If the goods bought on behalf are fake, it will be the family who will suffer. And now there are many false purchases reported on the Internet, so we should be careful. " Huang Jianquan stressed.
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What should be kept in the family medicine chest?
In life, people are most exposed to prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs. Huang Jianquan explained that prescription drugs are drugs that need doctors to diagnose before they can be issued, and they can only be purchased with a prescription; As the name implies, OTC drugs can be purchased and used without doctors' diagnosis and prescription. The regular drugs at home are mainly OTC drugs.
The characteristics of OTC drugs are relatively safe, economical and effective, and patients can choose according to their own conditions. For example, if you have fever and headache, you can use antipyretic analgesics such as ibuprofen suspension or paracetamol suspension; For cold and cough, you can use some antitussive and expectorant drugs such as ambroxol oral liquid, acetylcysteine granules, and procaterol oral liquid; A little cetirizine drops or loratadine oral liquid can be used for stuffy and runny nose, and a little furfural and ephedrine nasal drops can also be used for older children, which will make them feel much happier in an instant; There is also the usual diarrhea and diarrhea. Even if it is bacterial diarrhea, don't rush to use antidiarrheal and antibacterial drugs, because diarrhea pulls out all the pathogenic bacteria in the intestines, and generally it will be better after pulling out. What you need to do is to deal with the symptoms, such as regulating the intestinal flora with a little probiotics, or using a little montmorillonite powder if the diarrhea is serious, If dehydration occurs, use a little oral rehydration salt, etc., but if it does not improve in three days, it is recommended to go to a doctor for treatment, and find out the specific reason; In addition, a mild rash can be treated with calamine lotion, or a severe one can be treated with anti allergic drugs such as cetirizine drops or loratadine oral liquid, or a little topical desonide or mometasone furoate cream; Occasional trauma in life can be disinfected with a little iodophor, sterilized with Baiduobang, or bandaged.
"All the above mentioned medicines can be kept in the family medicine cabinet, but it must be noted that all medicines have a validity period, so don't prepare too many at one time, and pay attention to updating the medicine in the small medicine cabinet regularly to prevent expiration." Huang Jianquan said that parents should also be reminded that antibacterial drugs are generally not recommended to be used on their own. Common colds are caused by viruses, and antibacterial drugs are ineffective, If bacterial infection is combined (20-30% probability), it is also necessary to go to the hospital for examination and then choose antibiotics according to the condition of the patient. Therefore, it is not recommended to put antibiotics into the family medicine box.
In addition, Huang Jianquan said that the above recommended standing medicines are all single prescription preparations, and each medicine basically contains only one ingredient, which can be selected as needed. Parents need not worry about repeated use of drugs. (Fu Lili) (Source: Science and Technology Daily)
