GBI issues warning about side effects of antihistamines

ALBANY — The Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Georgia Child Fatality Review panel has issued a public awareness statement warning parents and caregivers to never use antihistamine medications for the sole purpose of making children sleep or calm down.

According to GBI special agent in charge Trebor Randle, the misuse of these common medications can cause acute diphenhydramine intoxication, which can result in rapid heart rate, confusion, hallucinations, convulsions and even death.

Four infants have died in Georgia because of the toxic affects of diphenhydramine since 2015, reports show. Since 2013, the Georgia Poison Control Center has received 940 reports of this condition involving children 5 years old and younger.

“Working with some of our partners in prevention, we wanted to get this message out there,” Randle said. “The GBI has the responsibility for the safe child fatality review process, and our stated goal is to determine why kids die in Georgia and to prevent deaths. Connecticut, which is one of our partners in the safe child review program, had seen a rise, so we started pulling our data to see if there was anything current.

“We did not have any deaths in 2017, but we thought it was very important to get out ahead of it and let people know that this is an ongoing problem. Parents are misusing medications like benadryl, mostly intentionally, because they thought it was OK to use on babies and toddlers to quiet them down or calm them down so mom or dad can get some rest or because they are taking a long car ride or airplane trip.”

According to Randle, such misuse could be fatal.

“We are warning people that misusing antihistamines like this could be deadly if you are giving a child this medication not for its intended use: treating symptoms of allergies or something like that,” the GBI agent said. “We did not want to wait until we saw any current cases before we put that message out there. In Georgia, we know that we have had deaths in the past. Since 2015, we have had four, but poison control, in about the same amount of time, has had over 900 calls related to this issue. As a result of this practice that parents feel like is harmless, there has been a large number of injuries and near fatalities.”

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration advises that children under 2 years old should not be given any kind of cough and cold product that contains a decongestant or antihistamine, because serious and possibly life-threatening side effects can occur.

FDA polling data have shown that as many as one in five mothers has given their children such drugs to get through a “big event,” like a car ride or plane trip. The FDA warns that a dosing error, such as the difference between a teaspoon and a tablespoon, could mean life or death for an infant.

If an instance of overmedication has occurred, officials encourage parents and caregivers to immediately contact Poison Control at (800) 222-1222 or start a live chat with a poison control information specialist at www.georgiapoisoncenter.org.