Halls Naturals - Anyone use them?

[kjbrown92]

My DS has a cold. He feels miserable. Not that you're supposed to give cold medicine to kids anyway, but he wouldn't be able to take them anyway because of his various food intolerances. He CAN have honey but doesn't like the taste and won't take it. So I went out today and looked over every friggin' cough drop there was. I bought Hall's Naturals Wild Cherry. The ingredients are citric acid, elderberry juice, flavors, ginger, glucose syrup, lemon grass, sage, sucrose, water, white thyme.

I know citric acid is usually from corn. He's okay with corn. Is it sometimes derived from citrus (he's severe to orange and moderate to lemon and lime)? And what are glucose and sucrose from?

He's getting the reaction that he usually gets to a food. Within an hour of having it, he got the rash on his upper lip. Then he had a major screaming/crying tantrum. And now it's almost midnight and he's up there screaming in his sleep. I tried to give him the Gripe Water which usually stops it, but he only drank 1 tsp (instead of 2 tsp) and clamped his mouth shut and said it was yucky. That was half hour ago. He's screaming again. This is going to be a long night. And of course they don't open until 9am so I can't call them to find out the sources of their "flavors" or anything else.

Give me a friggin' BREAK here. And DH is on night shift so it's all meeeeee....

[MeditationMama]

Hi I just read your blog and wanted to say I wish I could help. I did a little search on the internet but didn't come up with anything. But also, that I will be thinking of you tonight hoping things get better. I have a DS 4mo, so I will be up every 2-3 hours feeding him~so I will be thinking of you.

[kjbrown92]

I looked at the Halls website and I looked up some info on the various ingredients, but I didn't find anything that screamed any of his known allergens. Ahhh... he's screaming again (at least the other two aren't waking up from it!).

[MeditationMama]

What type of reaction does he have? What does the gripe water do for him? Will he suck on some fennel seeds and then just chew them up and swallow them? I started doing that because Gripe Water actually made my DS worse. When I did the whole fennel, it made more milk and calmed him down a little.

Maybe it's the lemongrass?

[changingseasons]

Oh Kathy- I'm so sorry. I hate those nights. We've had plenty of them... Our latest all-night screaming episode was when I trialed grassfed beef last week.

[kjbrown92]

Originally Posted by MeditationMama

What type of reaction does he have? What does the gripe water do for him? Will he suck on some fennel seeds and then just chew them up and swallow them? I started doing that because Gripe Water actually made my DS worse. When I did the whole fennel, it made more milk and calmed him down a little.

Maybe it's the lemongrass?

He screams all night long (reaction). The gripe water usually gets him to go into a regular sleep within 15 minutes. I'd stopped using it when DD was determined to be intolerant of fennel, but I still have a couple of unopened bottles. I don't have any fennel seeds.

Is lemongrass related to lemon? He was never tested for elderberry juice (and as far as I know, never had it before). I've read now that glucose can be from wheat or barley (both of which he's intolerant to). ARGH. I've had enough. Let's see if I can get some sleep during this lull.

[Chinese Pistache]

Oh, Kathy I hope you get some sleep tonight. And your ds.

[nalo]

Ugh. Poor guy and poor you. At the very least, I hope you figure it out. Sending sleep vibes your way.

[kjbrown92]

I called the company today. They said if soy or wheat had been on their (in terms of the glucose, sucrose) it would have said because they're top 8. He said the stuff that they don't list is proprietary (of course) but that he logged everything and he was forwarding it to another department and he said they would call back if they could give me any more information. I said since it's "Wild Cherry" wouldn't the flavor just be cherry? And he said it was a proprietary "blend" of flavors so it's possible that it's one of his other bad ones (orange, cranberry, lemon). The Customer Svc. Rep. was very nice and very understanding and he said that he hoped they could call me back with the information. So we'll see.

[lil_miss_understood]

Originally Posted by kjbrown92

I called the company today. They said if soy or wheat had been on their (in terms of the glucose, sucrose) it would have said because they're top 8. He said the stuff that they don't list is proprietary (of course) but that he logged everything and he was forwarding it to another department and he said they would call back if they could give me any more information. I said since it's "Wild Cherry" wouldn't the flavor just be cherry? And he said it was a proprietary "blend" of flavors so it's possible that it's one of his other bad ones (orange, cranberry, lemon). The Customer Svc. Rep. was very nice and very understanding and he said that he hoped they could call me back with the information. So we'll see.

Stupid "proprietary blends". : Stupid companies.
Sorry you had such a horrible night, Kathy. I hope ds is doing better today.

[kjbrown92]

He's still got the red upper lip and he's a little more "touchy" than usual (cries at the drop of a hat) but I've got my fingers crossed that he'll sleep tonight. I wonder if I can coerce (bribe) him into taking some gripe water before he goes to bed tonight....

[MeditationMama]

I'm not sure about lemon grass but there may be something in it that has that acid/alkaline thing going on that can be irritating.

I hope everything has worked out and you and your DShave had a couple of good nights sleep. Have you considered making a homemade cough syrup? I wonder if agave nector would work as a sweetener? It is low glycemic and not honey!

[kjbrown92]

Originally Posted by MeditationMama

I'm not sure about lemon grass but there may be something in it that has that acid/alkaline thing going on that can be irritating.

I hope everything has worked out and you and your DShave had a couple of good nights sleep. Have you considered making a homemade cough syrup? I wonder if agave nector would work as a sweetener? It is low glycemic and not honey!

I'll have to look that up. I just know that honey is supposed to be good for coughs, AND he can have it. It was more of a sore throat than a cough though. I have the cold now and the sinus pressure is just horrible. He's still got the really red upper lip but last night I didn't give him the Gripe Water before bed and he still slept, so I think I'm out of the woods.