Back away from the medicine cabinet.
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) just announced a recall of more than 2,300 bottles of a popular allergy medication due to a serious child poisoning risk.
The problem isn’t with the Benadryl Liquid Elixir itself, but rather the bottles in the affected batch, which fall short of federal child-resistant packaging requirements.
Drugmaker Arsell has initiated the recall, which affects 100-milliliter bottles of Benadryl Liquid Elixir sold in paper boxes with the code “X003VRIGUL” on the label.
The affected batch was sold on Amazon between July 2023 and October 2024, with prices ranging from $16 to $19.
Why was the product recalled?
Benadryl Liquid Elixir contains diphenhydramine, an antihistamine used to treat a variety of conditions, including allergies, the common cold, motion sickness and insomnia.
Under the Poison Prevention Packaging Act, medications containing diphenhydramine must be packaged in child-resistant containers to prevent young kids from accessing the drug, which can be dangerous in large doses.
The recalled bottles of Benadryl Liquid Elixir don’t meet these safety standards, leaving kids vulnerable to accidental poisoning. Fortunately, no injuries have been reported, per the CPSC announcement.
Symptoms of a diphenhydramine overdose include blurred vision, dry mouth, low blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, confusion, hallucinations and seizures, according to Mount Sinai.
What to do if you have a bottle
If you have a bottle of the affected Benadryl Liquid Elixir, immediately secure it out of children’s reach.
Although the packaging is the issue, Arsell recommends disposing of both the bottles and the medication. To get a full refund, contact the company with your Amazon order number and a photo showing the disposed product.
Child-resistant doesn’t mean childproof
Prescription medications are a leading cause of child poisonings in the US.
The American Association of Poison Control Centers receives over half a million reports of medicine poisonings in children under 6 each year.
In fact, one child is treated for accidental medicine poisoning in an emergency department every 8 minutes. That’s more than 60,000 kids rushed to the hospital each year for evaluation, according to ConsumerMedSafety.org.
In 90% of cases, children take the medications themselves, unsupervised by an adult. Only 5% of poisonings result from dosing errors by parents or caregivers.
Here’s what you can do to prevent accidental medicine poisoning, per Nemours Children’s Health:
- Keep all medicines in a secure cabinet, out of reach and sight of children.
- Ensure purses and bags—yours and guests’—that contain medicines are kept away from children at all times.
- Always store medicines in their original containers.
- Don’t assume your child can’t open a medicine package or container. Child-resistant packaging is not childproof; it’s simply designed to make it more difficult for children to access the contents.
- Never refer to medicine as “candy” and avoid taking medicine in front of children, as they often imitate.
