Bad news for parents: Recall of batches of Infacol medicine for wind in babies leads to national shortage

Babies in the middle of feeding could be stuck feeling uncomfortable as a medicine meant to relieve gas has been recalled causing a national shortage. Photo / Ted Baghurst

Babies in the middle of feeding could be stuck feeling uncomfortable as a medicine meant to relieve gas has been recalled causing a national shortage.

Many parents will be familiar with Infacol, a medicine that can help infants easily bring up wind, which in turn helps relieve the pain of feeding.

The medicine's supplier, Nice Pak Products, said in a recall notice after consultation with MedSafe it was recalling two batches of the 30ml variety of the product.

The problem was "individual units of the above batches may not meet the registered specification for the product for Description and Assay of polydimethylsiloxane".

"The use of impacted product is unlikely to cause adverse health consequences."

The company added, "no alternative stock is currently available".

A Herald reader said they had purchased a bottle of the medicine at the weekend but his wife had noticed the consistency was thicker than usual so they decided not to use it.

Heading to the same supermarket the next day they found out the product had sold out.

After a trip to a nearby pharmacy, which was also sold out, they were told there had been a recall.

"They said there is none for two months, and it could be a worldwide shortage."

That was bad news for parents as the tool was somewhat of a "revolution" to help infants release gas, he said.

A Unichem in central Auckland confirmed it had one bottle of the medicine left this afternoon.

Countdown's online shopping website reported none of the item was available to purchase.

Popular online vendors Mightyape and Pharmacy Direct were also out of stock.

AFFECTED BATCHES

- Batch CM832 and CP277.