FDA targeting ‘candy-like’ drugs that risk overdose in kids

The Food and Drug Administration is beginning a crackdown on drugs and supplements that often appear to be gummies, vitamins or candy as more kids are accidentally ingesting and overdosing on them because of their appearance.

From 2012 to 2021, there was a 530% increase in kids consuming melatonin — an over-the-counter sleep aid commonly sold in gummy form — according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Alternatives to conventional solid oral tablets are becoming more prevalent in the nonprescription drug space as manufacturers seek to make drugs more palatable for consumers,” the FDA wrote online ahead of a meeting on better identifying “candy-like” drugs.

“Many of these products are easily confused with candy and non-drug products, resulting in misuse and inadvertent overdose, particularly among young children.”

Dr. Suzanne Doyon, a medical director at Connecticut’s Poison Control Center, has warned that it often can be adults making these critical errors as much as kids.

“I’ve heard of situations where babysitters didn’t know which are the gummies or which are the medications,” said Doyon, who attended the meeting, according to NBC News.

Cleveland Clinic pediatrician Dr. Gina Robinson, who was not involved with the event, also said the issue commonly stems from people thinking that herbal supplements and vitamins do not pose a risk.

“Because things are natural or because things aren’t prescription medications doesn’t mean that there can’t be some complications or dangers involved with using them,” she said.

Another expert outside of the FDA panel, Johns Hopkins pediatrician Dr. Rachel Dawkins, also put out a stern warning to parents to never call vitamins candy to children.

“When I was a kid, my brother ate all of the Flintstones vitamins because he thought they were candy,” she said. “Poison control was very helpful, and he was just fine … But why risk letting kids think they are candy?”

Another issue: as drug makers have aimed to make some substances much more palatable, it’s causing kids to treat them as if they are a snack as well.

“Children will get into anything, and children will especially get into anything that tastes or looks like candy,” added Dr. Theresa Michele, who is in charge of the FDA’s office of nonprescription drugs.

Dr. Christopher Hoyte, medical director of the Rocky Mountain Poison & Drug Center, urged the creation of a straightforward definition for candy-like medications as a uniform term does not currently exist.

Pediatric pharmacist and Rutgers professor Rachel Meyers is preaching that “we need to get rid of the idea” of medicine going down like Skittles in order to take it.

Drug makers, like Senopsys president Jeffrey Worthington, are recommending the removal of appealing colors and shapes.

“I think there are lots of things I can point to in a gummy that I would rather not see in a drug product,” he said. “Things like rings and worms, cartoon characters and a lot of the iconography that aligns with gummies and other dietary supplements.”

Multivitamins that contain iron are of noteworthy risk to children, as they can potentially cause toxic symptoms, according to the Missouri Poison Center.

“Most prenatal vitamins, some adult vitamins, and many children’s chewable tablets likely contain iron,” the agency reports.

Research from 2006 also targeted candy-like vitamins.

It found that some vitamins — notably chewables — can be tied to Vitamin A toxicity in children when too many are consumed.