Gripewater

shortlegs

Can anyone tell me why gripewater (for treatment of colic) has been withdrawn from the Irish market.

Silverfish

Contains 4.4% alcohol. Shouldn't really give that to babies.

Sleipnir

It wasn't used to "treat" colic because nobody knows what colic is or what exactly causes it.

Karoma

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=36&si=1631456&issue_id=14198
...when unison works...

The reason the little ones stopped crying was that they were slowly but surely on their way to getting smashed. Yes, inebriated. The gripe water we all knew and loved contained between 3.6 per cent and 8 per cent alcohol, depending on which report you read.

In 1982, the FDA banned it from public consumption, and soon other countries, including Ireland banned what was truly the first alco-pop on record.

I'm certain I've seen it recently - albeit, in the alcohol(-and sugar?)-free form in Limerick.

magnumlady

I heard on the radio the other day that there is a type of gripe water available from health food shops (non alcoholic!) Luckily my two are way past that stage.

Debracd

Infacol works just as well as if not better than Gripewater anyway

samo

Still available Northern ireland and England!

pug_

There are alcohol free versions of gripe water available, but I've read somewhere that the active ingredient of gripe water (appart from alcohol) is fennel tea, so you might try a teaspoon full of that instead. I don't know how true that is the internet being an unreliable source of information sometimes, so don't take my word on that. But I do know that fennel tea is supposed to help relieve trapped wind if that's causing a problem.

I have a baby with colic atm, so am looking for all the solutions I can find infacol and colief are the two best we've tried so far though colief is known to give some babies diarrhea.

Nevyn

Fennel tea even the mass produced tea bags would not be safe for a child imho as a herbal remedy due to the fact the doseage can vary.

tabatha

i bought gripe water a few weeks ago up the north for my sister. she says it works a treat. i dont know about it been withdrawn but we all had it and it did us no harm. i also gave it to my daughter for colic and she is fine.

pug_

Thaedydal wrote:

Fennel tea even the mass produced tea bags would not be safe for a child imho as a herbal remedy due to the fact the doseage can vary.

Well it was recommended to us by a pharmacist, and the public health nurse also recommended it for colic. There are special baby versions of it available, though I don't know if you can get in this country. Just passing on what we've been told is all

Just to be clear, the pharmacist recommended fennel tea, gave us a box, and told us to use 2.5ml doses before each feed, she also gave us a serynge to measure the doses. We mentioned it to the public health nurse, and she concerred that it often helps with trapped wind. I can check up the brand of tea etc when I get home to clarify exactly the advice we were given, but they're the professionals and I trust their oppinion.

Nevyn

Cheers for that Pug have to be carefull about 'old wifes' tales about these parts.
Didn't know there was a baby version, well I have learned something new today

The Hill Billy

The non-alcoholic variety of gripewater is available in most large supermarkets. However, I agree with Debracd - I've found Infacol to be good too.
Mind you - it depends on which bests suits the child.

samo

If you are bottle feeding, I have found the Dr Browns bottles to be excellent if the baby having problmes with wind, my son suffered terribly using avent bottles when first born and we switched to the Dr Browns ones on reccomendation of a friend and much much easier to get his wind up.

I had used Avent on my other kids before and really noticed the difference with the Dr Browns ones, have also read that an osteopath can help with colicky babies as bone alignment can be affected during birth resulting in colic but dont know much more on that but sure googling it will have more info!!

gerrycollins

shortlegs wrote:

Can anyone tell me why gripewater (for treatment of colic) has been withdrawn from the Irish market.

because of the alco content

are u looking for a colic/wind helper

we use dentnox(sic) put half a tea spoon per 100mls bottle(we only use a quater its enough) and you will have a lovely burpy baby

shortlegs

Many thanks for the info. Just wanted to know why it was removed from the market. Yes, Infacol is pretty effective:)

Yuanli

Their withdrawal from the market is unfortunate. Is there any other reason behind it?

shesty

Mod Note,

Closing this thread.

If anyone has queries on Gripe water, please open a new thread, don't resurrect old threads.

Thanks,

S