Parents will protect their child by any means neccesary. So, most parents are super vigilant when it comes to making sure the remedies and supplements they give to their children are safe.
Danielle Kapetanovic didn’t give it a second thought when she gave her daughter a popular teething product.
It’s made specifically for babies children, however, it almost took the life of her child. The Dulle, Virginia mother immediately took to Facebook to warn other parents about the dangers of using baby Orajel after her it made her daughter turn blue and stop breathing.
“I don’t like to put personal information related to my kids out there but I feel compelled to warn other parents about the risk of using Baby Orajel,” she wrote.
“Chloe is 15 months and teething. Someone I know recommended trying Baby Orajel on her gums to alleviate some of her discomfort. I bought the nighttime version as seen in the picture and right before her bedtime decided to apply it. The directions say apply a ‘pea size’ – I put less than a pea size on my finger and applied it to her gums.”
You can see the kind that she used in the photo below:
The next thing she knew her baby daughter was “unresponsive.”
“Chloe immediately turned red, started kicking, got one or two screams in, and 10-15 seconds after the Orajel touched her gums she became unresponsive. Her eyes locked in a dead stare, she became limp and stopped breathing,” Danielle recalled. “She turned blue. I grabbed her and put her against my body, hitting her back trying to wake her up, but no response. I ran her down the hall to my bed and lied her down and began breathing into her mouth as Mike called 911.”
Thankfully, her daughter eventually came to.
“Thankfully she woke up and started screaming and crying after maybe 15-20 seconds in total, which felt like an eternity. The ambulance arrived and EMT’s checked her out and determined she was okay. Unfortunately I did not know this in advance, but there are many other parents out there who have experienced the exact same occurrence with their own children when using Baby Orajel,” Danielle said.
Danielle decided to share her horrifying experience and everything she learned about the project so other parents wouldn’t be putting their children at risk.
“I found online posts dating back to 2008 from parents with literally the same experience – their baby became unresponsive in seconds, went limp, turned blue, became responsive again after 15 seconds or so – it was like someone wrote my same experience. What’s more, I learned the FDA warns against giving babies Benzocaine – the active ingredient in Baby Orajel,” Danielle explained.
“The use of benzocaine gels and liquids for mouth and gum pain can lead to a rare but serious—and sometimes fatal—condition called methemoglobinemia, a disorder in which the amount of oxygen carried through the blood stream is greatly reduced. Children under 2 years of age are of particular risk, with almost 80% of reported benzocaine gel related cases of methemoglobinemia having occurred in children under 2.”
So, even though this product has babies under 2-years of age on the box and is sold in stores the FDA advises against given products with benocaine to children.
“Benzocaine products should not be used on children less than two years of age, except under the advice and supervision of a healthcare professional,” the FDA’s website states. “Healthcare professionals and consumers are advised to consider the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendations for treating teething pain instead of using the benzocaine teething product: give the child a teething ring chilled in the refrigeratror, gently rub or massage the child’s gums with your finger to relieve the symptoms of teething in children. If these methods do not provide relief from teething pain, consumers should talk to a healthcare professional to identify other treatments.”
Danielle says she is never giving her kids Baby Orajel ever again and hopes that other parents will follow suit!
“Chloe has since been checked out by her pediatrician and they think she will be just fine,” Danielle explained. “Unfortunately her Doctors can’t definitively say if what happened to Chloe was a reaction to the benzocaine in the Baby Orajel vs a ‘breath holding spell,’ or something else.”
Danielle’s post ended up going viral and has been shared almost 80,000 times on social media.
“Please, do not give your children Baby Orajel. The potential temporary relief it may provide your baby from teething is simply not worth the risk,” she says.
“This product is incredibly misleading (look at the age of the child on the box) and should be properly labeled with a large warning or simply removed from the shelves and not advertised for babies. Please don’t put your kids at risk. Please share this post with your friends, especially those with teething babies, so nobody else makes the same mistake.”
Check out her original post below:
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10106741392028193&set=a.10100579127725253.2771311.6207453&type=3&theater
