Two blogs in one day. I never though I would see it. Well, I have recently discovered that my life is completely uninteresting so instead of only blogging once every one to two months I will start periodically giviving advice from your friendy student pharmacist. First on the list: Is Baby Aspirin Safe for a baby?
The answer is definitely not. I had a patient come to the pharmacy a few days ago asking for teething tablets so I gave them to her. Afterward she asked me to direct her to the baby aspirin. I didn't think much of it so I directed her to the baby aspirin. As she walked away I started wondering why a woman who couldn't be over 30 would want baby aspirin when it struck me that she was going to give that aspirin to her BABY! I walked up to her and ask who she was buying the medication for and she said that it was for her 8 month old. I explained to her that aspirin is not okay for babies and she had a hard time understanding why baby aspirin isn't okay for babies so that is why I have selected this topic today.I will tell you right now that there is no drug on the market with a worse name than baby aspirin. That is why they changed the name, depending on the company, they changed it to either heart healthy aspirin or low dose aspirin. They never changed anything about the actual medication, all they did was change the name. Back in 1981, yes that is right 28 years ago. They discovered that children under the age of 12 who are given aspirin have a very high chance of developing a rare but potentially deadly disease called Reye's Syndrome. It very closely mimics a bad viral infection, so many times parents don't get their kids check out until it is too late.
The main use for Baby Aspirin is to prevent blood clots. The lowest effective dose of aspirin when treating pain or fever is 325 mg whereas baby aspirin is only 81 mg. Far too little to help with fever or pain but more than enough to cause serious injury to a child. As I was saying though, if you have had a heart attack, Pulmonary Embolism, Stroke, Deep Vein Thrombosis, any other clotting event, or even if you haven't had problems but are at high risk aspirin is an effective way to prevent any future clotting events.
In addition to that, you should never put yourself on daily aspirin therapy. You should discuss it with your doctor if you think you may be at risk. Some of you may be familiar with a TV show called Oprah. Well on this show Oprah there is a doctor, Dr. Ozz, who comes a doles out free medical advice. Don't take everything he says as gospel. He advised everyone that is over 55 to take not just one but two baby aspirin everyday! While on aspirin therapy your risk of clotting events goes down, but your risk of having a serious bleeding event that can be just as dangerous goes WAY up. It has been estimated that for every one clotting event prevented by aspirin theray there are hundreds if not thousands of bleeding events CAUSED by aspirin therapy that can be just as dangerous. Bleeding events can also cause hospitalization and death so your risk of clotting problems has to be great enough to assume the risk of a bleeding problem, so once again discuss it with YOUR doctor so someone who is familiar with you and your situation is helping you make the decision.
In summation, don't give your kids aspirin at all, and don't take daily aspirin without talking to your physician.
