Paregoric Should Be Banned
1 Professor of Pediatrics Emeritus, Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA 94143
I was surprised to find that camphorated oil and spirits of camphor were common causes of poisoning in children, for I did not realize that these products were often present in most households or that they were used for folklore therapy by parents any more. I wish the author (Pediatrics 62:404, 1978) had gone one step further to speak about the impropriety of using paregoric as a mild opiate for children, often in combination with absorbent agents expected to remove intestinal toxins during diarrhea.




