Toddlers at risk from codeine

The maternity world was turned upside down in the past few years with the realization that a common painkiller administered to mothers following childbirth was having disasterous results for newborns. Now it has been established by Canadian researchers that toddlers with the same genetic variation as those newborns have died from the same drug given directly to them following surgery.

According to research done at the University of Western Ontario in London and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, the very common drug is acetaminophen and codeine (one familiar brand name of this combination is Tylenol 3). Unfortunately, there are very young children with a genetic variation who convert the codeine into morphine very rapidly. The morphine then slows breathing and a high enough dose will stop breathing resulting in death.

These findings are significant for cases where an otherwise “healthy” young child has undergone an uneventful procedure yet had complications such as respiratory arrest or death. If the child received codeine, that could be the root of the problem.