Parents Scrambling For Kids’ Cold, Flu Medicine

Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre was blunt and to the point in a Twitter post last week.

“Our shelves are empty. Theirs are full. No more excuses. Kids need medication now.”

Poilievre, the Conservative Party of Canada leader who served as the Nepean-Carleton MP until the riding split for the 2015 election, has been outspoken about the lack of Children’s Tylenol and other children’s medications that are in short supply in Canada. Poilievre has a vested interest in the situation not just as the Official Leader of the Opposition, but also as the father of two young children.

In Barrhaven and Nepean, pharmacies have struggled to obtain children’s pain medication. When what little is available arrives, it quickly flies off the shelves. Some parents needing medication for their children have told the Independent that customers have a hoarding mentality.

“This reminds me of when COVID started,” said one mom of three children who agreed to speak anonymously to the Independent, but did not want her name used for fear of being smeared on social media or have her children face repercussions. “As soon as the lockdown and quarantine happened, everyone raced to the grocery store or to Costco in Barrhaven and started buying up any and all rolls of toilet paper, bottles of hand sanitizer, or Lysol or Chlorox Wipes. Now, when people see Children’s Tylenol or Children’s Advil, they buy it all because they are afraid of not having it when they need it. The harder it is to get, the more people are hoarding it.”

She added that the federal government and Health Canada have not been clear on why the supply chain has affected Canada and not other countries.

Last week, Health Canada officials said that more doses of children’s painkillers will be on their way to Canada soon. There was no specific timeline given, and the amount of children’s painkiller products was also not specified. They gave little more information than that amount imported would “help address the immediate situation.”

According to reports, the Tylenol is coming from the United States, and the Advil is coming from Australia.

Supply has been short for several months, but it intensified late in the summer. Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) combined with an early flu season, causing many city-wide and local illnesses. The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario entered a crisis mode last month with long wait times and more overcrowding.

In August, Health Canada released a statement addressing the shortage.

“We share the concerns of parents and caregivers about their inability to find infant and children’s acetaminophen and ibuprofen. These products are essential for families, caregivers, and health care professionals to reduce fever and pain. We are committed to exploring every possible option to end this shortage.”

Second ICU

The situation became so bad at CHEO that a second pediatric intensive care unit was opened last week to address an unprecedented overflow of critically ill babies and young children with respiratory illnesses.

“Unprecedented feels like an overused word at the moment, but there’s no better term to describe the crisis facing our pediatric health-care system right now,”, said CHEO Chief of Staff, Dr. Lindy Samson. She also pleaded that people wear masks indoors and in crowded areas to prevent the spread of virus to youth and children.

CHEO is not the only hospital overwhelmed by the situation. Queensway Carleton Hospital admitted 24 patients through their ER despite having only 22 beds. They also saw more than 200 patients who were not admitted.

Health experts have linked the overcrowding and long wait times, especially at CHEO, with the shortage of children’s pain killers. Without the medicine, children are not able to get the much needed sleep it takes to fight off viruses and illness.

Search for medicine

Cross-border shopping has been slowly ramping up with the elimination of Canadian border restrictions due to COVID. With Black Friday coming, malls in upstate and central New York will once again be filled with cars with Ontario license plates. One of the most popular items will be children’s cold and flu medicine.

While a border guard at the Prescott-Ogdensburg Bridge told the Barrhaven Independent that there had been an increase of Canadians declaring Children’s Tylenol among their purchases.

While there is not a shortage of the medicine in the United States, the pharmacy at the Ogdensburg Price Chopper told the Barrhaven Independent that they, too, are having trouble keeping the medicine in stock.

“We currently have none,” a Price Chopper Pharmacy employee told the Independent. “We are not permitted to release the information on who is buying the medicine or where they are from. We can only tell you that we currently have none in stock.”

Made in Barrhaven

Some parents desperately looking for medicine for their children have found what they need in Barrhaven. Longfields Pharmacy and Fallowfield Pharmacy both have compounding labs within their stores.

“We are able to make Tylenol in house in liquid form in house for our customers,” said Preet Sidhu, who owns and operates Longfields Pharmacy. “We source the active ingredients from suppliers and are able to make medicine similar to Tylenol or Advil in liquid form.”

Sidhu said the medicine will last for 14 days and must be refrigerated. The Tylenol product is tutti fruity flavoured, while the Advil product is bubble gum flavoured.

“The one thing we do ask parents is that they provide us with the exact weight of the child so that we can dose it accordingly,” she said.

Preet Sidhu compounds children’s medicine at Longfields Pharmacy.

Carleton MP and Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre shared this image.

The shortage of Children’s Tylenol and other children’s pain relief products has put tremendous pressure on CHEO.