h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Charlie has started cutting teeth...
at four months old
this is one of the reasons I haven't been posting on site much


so last night I went out and bought two boxes of teething gel from the supermarket
one a well known brand that i remember not liking and another one i didnt look at and just picked up in-case charlie was the same as his brother.

The other one turned out to be Homopathic.. I am not a believer in Homopathy and the first thought was Oh it cant be that bad...

so being a dueyful parent I tried it on myself... after thinking this is weird... whats in it?

Well I'll tell you so you dont need to buy it and find out
in a 1g "serving" you get
12c Chamomilla
12c Aconite
12c Belladonna.....

chamomilla is better known as chamomile

Aconite - the only information i can find on this is that it's a type of buttercup and poisonous...

Belladonna - I assume they mean deadly nightshade...

Yes those seem like perfectly reasonable things to give to a very young child even in stupidly small doses (what is 12c anyway)

Anthea

But if there is still any amount of it actually in the gel it's not homeopathic, is it?
Lately I often came accross things labeld as 'homeopathic' while in fact it was herbal.

well yes there is that
but homeopothy is quite frightening I mean some people may assume that the homeopathic ingrediant is actually in there
(I had a friend who swore mercury was good for you...)

12 c means that it's been diluted to 1 in 100 12 times. There won't be any of the Bella Donna left. It won't do anything for his teething though - it'll just make you feel you're doing something, but not affect his pain.

Here's an amusing you tube video on the subject http://crispian-jago.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/if-homeopathy-works-ill-drink-my-own.html

I find it really quite disturbing that there isn't a proper measurement of those ingredients if they are actually in the product at all

c I thought stood for centi, one hundredth, but it is a prefix,

so if you were to have 12 of those 0.12g of listed products *confused*

anyway I googled 'c' also stands for the speed of light

ah, Z makes much more sense!

*looks a little disappointed* not that I would suggest you give it to bear but after watching the mentalist last week, bella donna tea looked quite fun

I dont think they should be allowed to sell these things in supermarkets though, its not helpful for the general population

I knew the dose was ridiculously small (to the point of non-existent)
if i wanted Homeopathic hockum i would have gone to a shop i recognise to sell the stuff not a supermarket

anyway... it's gone in the bin and I shall use the other one instead

I don't think they should be either.. what's worse is that it's sold in Boots and other chemists.

Have you thought of writing a complaint to the supermarket?

Well, I guess they can sell it in supermarkets because well.. there isn't really anything in it. But you are right, they shouldn't. And selling herbal stuff (with actual herbs in it and not just memories of herbs) as homeopathy makes people even more confused.

I have emailed Asda but i don't assume they will get back to me,
if they do I shall let you know what they say

they phoned me...

the phoned me at 9am to say how sorry they were and that they will pass on my concerns to the store in question

basically thats marketing talk for "we won't actually do anything but we still want you to shop here"

better than being hit in the face with a wet fish

well you never and like you said better that a slap in the face with a wet

is a lot of demand in Asda do you think for homopathic teething gels, I can't imagine that there is. I can't think of what possessed them to stock it

From memory I don't think teething gel helped Hiccup at all, I think I used to give a dose of paracetamol in the evening if she was really grizzley and miserable.

I'm not sure how it came about but she used to chew on frozen chips and then spit them out, didn't seem to do her any harm

well you never know, sorry missed word

not that I gave her frozen chips all the time, I wasn't sure about raw spud but then I wasn't sure about her ability to roll around the floor and start chewing table legs given half the chance

If you send me a copy of your e mail to ASDA I will happily put it on a certain skeptic website I am an occasional contributor to.

I would if i could z but they have you fill in emails on there own forum thingy

Ahh well.