Can childrens’ teething gels be compounded?

When your child is going through the uncomfortable and often upsetting process of teething, finding a way to soothe their pain becomes a top priority. As a parent, you want effective and safe solutions. While many commercial products are available, some parents may find that their child needs a tailored approach. This is where a compounding pharmacy can offer a unique, custom-made solution.

In this article, we’ll explore:

• The Challenge of Teething for Children and Parents
• When Commercial Teething Gels Aren’t Enough
• How Compounding Pharmacies Can Help
• What’s in a Compounded Teething Gel?
• Safety and Considerations for Young Children

The Challenge of Teething for Children and Parents

Teething is a normal developmental stage, but the symptoms, including crankiness, drooling, disturbed sleep, and mild gum irritation, can be challenging for both the child and the family. Most parents first turn to readily available commercial teething products, such as familiar gels, or seek advice from their local pharmacist on products like Bonjela or SM-33 gel. These products are often the best and quickest starting point.

When Commercial Teething Gels Aren’t Enough

For some children, commercial products may not provide adequate relief, or a parent may be looking for a formulation without certain ingredients found in mass-produced options. If you’ve tried the common commercial products and still feel disheartened by your child’s discomfort, a compounding pharmacy can be the next step. Compounding pharmacists specialize in customizing medications when a suitable commercial product is not available.

How Compounding Pharmacies Can Help

National Custom Compounding (NCC) can work with you, your doctor, or your paediatrician to develop a custom-made formulation. This collaborative approach allows for a solution that is specifically designed to meet your child’s unique needs, taking into account their age and the severity of their symptoms.

The rigorous process of compounding at NCC ensures that the finished product is of high quality and safety. This involves:

• Pharmacist reviews to ensure the formulation is appropriate for the child.
• Precise ingredient selection and preparation in a controlled environment.
• Adherence to strict quality control standards.

What’s in a Compounded Teething Gel?

The formulation of a compounded teething gel can vary widely and is always customized based on the doctor’s prescription and the child’s needs. Common components that might be included are:

• Numbing Agents: Local anaesthetics, used in very specific, low doses, to help temporarily numb the inflamed gum tissue and provide relief.
• Soothing Agents: Ingredients designed to calm and protect the irritated area.
• Taste Components: Flavourings added to make the gel more palatable, which is crucial for compliance in young children.

The goal is to find a balance of ingredients that are safe, beneficial, and effective for the child’s specific situation.

Safety and Considerations for Young Children

When compounding for very young children, safety is the paramount concern. Many ingredients used in medications for adults or older children may not have established safety data for infants. Therefore, compounding pharmacists must exercise caution and typically err on the side of using conservative formulations.

As a child gets older, generally over the age of two, the range of safe and effective formulations tends to broaden. We always prioritize:

• Consulting with parents and prescribers to determine the safest ingredients.
• Focusing on beneficial, evidence-based compounds.
• Aiming to make the final product as cost-effective as possible for the family.

It is crucial to monitor your child for any potential side effects when introducing any new medicine.

Remember that compounding takes a few days, as it is a custom process. While commercially available products offer an instant fix, if those fail to provide the necessary relief, consulting with a compounding pharmacy like National Custom Compounding offers a tailored solution to help your little one get through the teething period more comfortably.

Video Transcript

Hi there. Today I wanted to chat about children’s teething gels. And can they be compounded? Like everyone that’s had kids, you know, when they’re going through that period of their life and they are growing them for the first time, they can be really unsettled. They can be upset. And as a parent, you want to do everything within your control to help them make them more comfortable and get through that challenging period. Compounding pharmacies are in a really good position to help parents when they need teething gel for their kids. Like everything, compounding pharmacies are here to support patients when there’s not an appropriate commercial product available. So as a starting point, you’ve probably heard of familiar commercial products like Bonjela or SM-33 gel. Talk to your pharmacist about whether they’re the best choices for your kids, depending on their age and depending on the type of teething that they’re experiencing. But start with a commercial one first. Generally it may work, and if it does, then happy days. But if it doesn’t work and you feel a little bit disheartened, that’s when a compounding pharmacy like ours at National Custom Compounding can be really beneficial to chat to one of our pharmacists and come up with a possible solution so we can work with your doctor, your pediatrician, yourselves as parents, and we can make a formulation that can really help teething in kids. And like everything, because of our rigorous process in compounding and in our compounding pharmacy, you can be rest assured that when you received a finished product, it’s a high quality and it’s a safe product because we’ve been through the various pharmacist reviews with your child. So the formulations can vary. What’s in them can vary. There could be things like numbing agents. There could be things like soothing agents. There could be a taste component to make it palatable for the kids to use. That’ll really depend upon what is most suitable for your kids when they’re going through that teething period. And also, like all medicines, there might be some side effects. So it’s important to keep an eye on those really young kids. It is quite difficult to make formulations for them, because some of the safety of ingredients may not have been might not have been discovered or known yet. So we tend to err on the side of caution in those situations. But as the child gets older, over the age of two, you do find that some of these formulas are quite safe and effective. So, you know, what we tend to do is talk to yourselves as parents, work out what ingredients are safe to use in the kid, what’s beneficial to use, and then try and make it as cost effective as possible. Compounding pharmacies take a couple of days to make products, so just remember that it’s not an instant fix. If you do visit your local pharmacy and they’ve got a commercially available product, that’s obviously a lot quicker. But if that fails, come and chat to someone like ourselves and we’re always happy to help. And like everything, we hope it will help the kid be more happy and then that will make everyone’s life a lot easier as they’re going through that teething period. Thanks for listening. Have a great day.