I was recently in London and my small daughter got some kind of intestinal illness. The pharmacist recommended a (generic) medicine containing kaolin and pectin–the same formula as the Kaopectate I used to know and loathe.
A few weeks later, back in the States, my daughter was again having tummy trouble. Trips to multiple pharmacies revealed that “Kaopectate” is now the same as Pepto-Bismol, i.e. the active ingredient is bismuth salicylate, and therefore not suitable for children under 12.
When did this change happen and why? A pharmacist and a doctor I asked had no idea, other than mumbling “It’s been a while…”
Wikipedia gives 2004 as the date when that change happened in the US, but it doesn’t say why.
Also, Reye’s Syndrome is why children under 12 are not supposed to take it, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of evidence that non-aspirin salicylates are associated with Reye’s Syndrome.
Well, I guess I could have used the Google…thanks for the Wiki info.
According to this thread, the manufacturer stopped using kaolin and switched ot attapulgite, the FDA felt that there was insufficient evidence that attapulgite worked, so the formula was changed again to bismuth salicylate. Nothing on why the formula was changed initially or why it was changed back.
I would always tend to guess the cause of the change is cost. Although I would have guessed that the market for dirt was pretty unchanging, it turns out that kaolin has been getting really pricey, increasing almost 30% per ton between 2004 and 2009.
The change in Kaopectate seems to have coincided with a time when many industries that used kaolin were trying to find alternative.
I’d read that there were unacceptably high levels of lead in the kaolin clay. As a person who remembers the old Kaopectate days, you had to take a slug of the stuff after EVERY loose bowel movement.
When the entire community would be hit simultaneously with the gut rumble bug, people would talk about sitting on the toilet with a bottle of Kaopectate in hand, swigging it at will. A common observation: After a while, it doesn’t taste so terrible.
It’s my understanding it is still used in large animal veterinary practice, so if you have a horse in the neighborhood, you might be able to buy the old Kaopectate by the bucket.
~VOW