Examining Your Children's Prescription Medications

Are you a parent? If you are, there will likely come a time when your child will develop an illness or a medical condition that requires prescription medication. For my daughter, who is three, that time recently arose and it was due to eczema.

After officially diagnosed as having eczema, and after failed improvement with the use of Eucerin's Calming Itch Relief, my daughter's physician decided to write her a prescription for an ointment referred to as Tunnessen's Ointment. The prescription was faxed in; therefore, I only had the doctor's handwritten notes. When an internet search of Tunnessen's Ointment turned up empty handed, I assumed it was due to a misspelling. After later picking up the prescription, I learned that wasn't the case. Red flags automatically raised in my mind, as it hard it imagine not finding information on this eczema prescription online, as you can find just about anything else online.

As a parent who was concerned with the ointment that would be spread on my daughter's body, I decided to perform standard internet searches on the ingredients. One of those ingredients was Phenol. Imagine my surprised with what I found. According to http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov, which is the website for the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry, Phenol is a toxic substance, which can cause liver damage, skin burns, as well as death. After further reading, I did learn that small amounts are safe, but prolonged use, as well as prolonged exposure to the skin and air exposure have not fully be researched; therefore, the effects are not really known. Tunnesen's Ointment was to be spread on my daughter twice a day and we had enough refills for one year.

Although the percentage of Phenol in my daughter's prescription was less than one percent, .08 percent to be exact, I was still unsure as to which approach I should take. Tunnessen's Ointment is what is commonly referred to as a compound prescription. No predetermined doses can be found; the pharmacist in question handles every aspect. This can leave greater room for error. This left me with cause for concern. Although I do trust our pharmacist, I was unsure as to whether or not I was willing to put the overall health of my daughter in his hands; therefore, I placed a phone call to the pharmacy.

When speaking directly with the pharmacist, I was surprised. Although he advised me that he would not develop a children's prescription for anything unsafe, he did say that Phenol was poison. Poison is such as strong word, especially when the word I used was toxic. Poison, when associated with a children's prescription, is something that automatically makes your mouth gape open in shock. In the end, I decided against using the prescription. Although everything may have been well and worked out to my daughter advantage and helped her eczema outbreaks, I made a decision, as a parent, to examine other options. The base of her prescription was for Eucerin Aquaphor, so we decided to use this over-the-counter product instead.

What surprised me, concerning this experience with this particular prescription for eczema, was the lack of information online. My daughter's doctor uses this prescription herself and the pharmacist stated that the office is known to write these prescriptions. However, with the use of a keyword tracking tool, I was able to return no search results on Tunnessen's Ointment. Although I do regularly give my daughter antibiotics or other prescriptions without checking them online, they are often ones in which I have heard of or personally used before. As a parent, I urge you to fully research any children's prescription that your child is given, especially if it is one that you are unfamiliar with. This is also particularly important with compound formulas.

If you are interested in further exploring any prescriptions, including a children's prescription, you can either do so directly through your pharmacist or by using the internet. Many pharmacies, such as Walgreen's, have online websites where you are able to search or browse their database of prescriptions. For what you don't find listed on these websites, a standard internet search may provide you with the needed information.

Disclaimer: Tunnessen's Ointment, as previously stated, is a prescription that was prescribed to my daughter to help with eczema. Although, our pharmacist assured us the level of Phenol used was a safe amount, we made the decision not to use it. With that in mind, the physician in question has used this prescription ointment with success, and others have as well; therefore, this article is not intended to bring negative attention to the prescription in question, it is, however, intended to bring awareness to ingredients we may not otherwise take note of.