This information is sponsored by Jordan’s Guardian Angels, a non-profit organization working with families with special needs children who are challenged with the need to administer a variety of life-saving medication to their children who face many physical and intellectual disabilities.
If you’ve ever tried to give a young child medicine, you’ll know that it can be like giving a cat a bath. Anything that helps the medication go down and be more agreeable for your kid is a win. One simple solution is to make medicine more palatable to children by adding child-friendly flavoring. However, the California Board of Pharmacy is now considering limitations on this straightforward remedy.
The California Board of Pharmacy wants to mandate that medicine flavoring for toddlers and children be considered a compounding process that can only be carried out by compounding pharmacies. Compounding pharmacies can mix and combine ingredients for customized medication unlike retail pharmacies that dispense pre-mixed and packaged drugs made by pharmaceutical companies.
WHAT DOES USING A COMPOUNDING PHARMACY MEAN?
It means that if you want to add a flavor to your child’s medication, you can no longer use your local retail pharmacy. You will need to use a compounding pharmacy. While I use and appreciate compounding pharmacies for some medications for my kids, they are far away from my home and I receive the
medication by mail. I can’t imagine waiting that long for medication I need for my child if it’s more urgent.
WHAT WILL CA ASSEMBLY BILL 782 DO?
Assemblywoman Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood), Jacqui Irwin (D-Thousand Oaks), and Assemblyman Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale), both Democratic and Republican members, have introduced Assembly Bill 782 to continue allowing community pharmacies to flavor medicine for our toddlers and children.
If this issue affects you, here are a few articles on this issue, a link to the legislation, and a compound pharmacy finder to see the distance you would have to travel. Please share with other parents in your network.
Flavoring Medicine Is Vital For Kids. California May Soon Make It Harder
Children Have A Right To Medicine That Goes Down Easily
Parents Plead For Their Children’s Flavored Medicine Not To Be Taken Away
Legislation Language:
(b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), “compounding” does not include reconstitution of a drug pursuant to a manufacturer’s directions, the sole act of
tablet splitting or crushing, capsule opening, or the addition of a flavoring agent to enhance palatability.