Are Calpol and Nurofen for Children Gluten Free?

Calpol and Nurofen, are they Gluten Free?

 

A couple of years ago my daughter was diagnosed with coeliac disease. Whilst I acknowledge it’s not the most devastating diagnosis your child can get, it certainly is a challenging one! As a Pharmacist, I felt somewhat prepared for what lay ahead, but as a mother, I didn’t have the same confidence.

 

Sharing useful information!

I feel it might be useful to mums in a similar boat, or even those who are suffering from the coeliac disease themselves if I try to provide some information on the website that I have found particularly useful. With this in mind, for me, the biggest question was about medication. My daughter is in general good health, so my priority was to establish her coeliac safety with the only medications I ever have cause to give her.

Nurofen for Childen – Orange is ‘technically’ gluten-free in Ireland. However – it contains 18ppm of gluten (in both baby and child formulations). While this is below the 20ppm cut-off recommended by The Coeliac Society of Ireland to be deemed ‘gluten-free’, many countries have a cut-off of 10ppm.

 

So what does this mean?

This means, quite simply, there is some gluten in Nurofen for Children – in the ORANGE flavour only!! The great news is that there is ZERO gluten in the strawberry flavour of Nurofen for Children. The company were extremely helpful in clarifying this for me and that kind of transparency is exactly what we parents of Coeliac children need!

I find it easy to swap out the orange flavour for the strawberry when it is essential to medicate my child, and so I am happy to do so. It is worth noting that the Coeliac Society do feel that the level of gluten is low enough not to cause an impact on your child’s health, however with a newly diagnosed child I would suggest doing everything you can to completely remove gluten from their diet so that their digestive system gets the time it needs to heal and recover.

Nurofen for Children – Strawberry Flavour

This is completely gluten-free!

I recommend using this instead of the orange flavour when needs must!

Calpol – All products

All products in the Calpol range are free from gluten – all suspensions are suitable for use in coeliac children.

We have a full range of over-the-counter medicines available to order from , they will be checked by a Pharmacist and delivered to your door!

I hope you have found this article helpful and if you have any questions at all please don’t hesitate to contact me by sending a private message to the WonderCare Facebook page or my website contact page or by calling me (Sheena) at Milltown totalhealth Pharmacy in Dublin 6 on 012600262.

*This article is accurate on 17/6/21 – please visit www.medicines.ie for continuously updated product information