Canada still facing shortage of kid’s pain medications. What options do parents have?

Since summer, infant and children’s acetaminophen and ibuprofen products have been in limited supply. Here are some ways to manage as the shortages persist.

There are growing concerns about an ongoing nationwide shortage of pain medications for children in Canada, as the annual flu season and a potential wave of COVID-19 loom.

Since the summer, infant and children’s acetaminophen and ibuprofen products have been in limited supply in retail outlets, pharmacies and hospitals across Canada.

With the start of fall and winter season up ahead when respiratory viruses typically surge, Canadian parents may have to explore other ways to manage their kids’ pain and fever as supply continues to fall short of high demand, experts say.

“Not having a product to treat a fever itself will affect a large part of the larger childhood population because we’re seeing it across the country. We’re seeing it in all cities,” said Barry Power, editor-in-chief at the Canadian Pharmacist Association (CPhA) and a pharmacist in Ottawa.

Health Canada says the shortage is due to unprecedented demand, as pediatricians noted an unusually early rise in viral illnesses over the spring and summer months this year.

As the problem persists, more kids are filling up emergency departments and many families are requesting prescriptions for relief medications, said Dr. Anna Banerji, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at the University of Toronto.

“It’s not an ideal situation,” she said because of the strain it is putting on an already overstretched health-care system.

“To tie up a clinic or an emergency department asking for fever-reducing medications, that makes the wait very long in a system that’s really at capacity if not exceeding capacity.”