Abidec contains peanut oil - but so what?

Benjamin Jacobs, Consultant Paediatrician,
March 22, 2016

Indeed Peanut Oil is not a well known ingredient of Abidec drops, but on what basis can the authors say this is "clinically vital information"? Have there been any reports of allergy to Abidec drops?

Abidec drops are regularly given to British babies. The introduction of a small amount of peanut oil at that age may induce tolerance and result in LESS allergy.

Abidec has other advantages over "nut-free" drops. NHS Healthy Start vitamin drops contain less Vitamin D (300 units) than Abidec (400 units) and Dalivit drops have more Vitamin A (5000 units) which can be a problem if the dose is doubled (as parents often do) compared to Abidec's 1333 units of Vitamin A.

I would be grateful for any documented data on harmful effects of supplements in infancy. Caution is required before issuing an edict against this widely used supplement. Paediatricians such as Reginald Lightwood wrongly suspected Vitamin supplements of causing toxicity (hypercalcaemia) 60 years ago. As a result, the UK still lags behind most of the Western world in our Vitamin D supplementation programme.

Conflict of Interest:

None declared

Conflict of Interest

None declared