Reaction to Ricola cough drops

[findtheanswernow]

My son sucked on Ricola cough drops on and off for ~ five days. His faced turned into "PG" face - red, blotchy, skin like sandpaper, flaking. Worse on forehead and around eyes. Looks like a chemical burn, no amount of lotion will sooth it. From previous experience, this will take a week to calm down. The only questionable ingredient was "Natural flavors." I contacted Ricola and the person was adamant that there was no PG in any of their ingredients. But, a) the cough drops were the only thing that changed in his diet and b) the skin reaction is consistent with previous long-term PG exposure episodes. Does anyone else have experience with cough drops or "natural flavors" that the manufacturer swears doesn't have PG but you think otherwise?

[kerrykuzak]

ALWAYS stay away from "Natural Flavors". They can have 50 - 100 different ingredients in them.

[gothchiq]

I've drilled down on several companies on their "natural" this and "fragrance" that and there's always PG at the end of the road. Trust the evidence that you see before you rather than the words given by some clueless employee of theirs.

Luckily, hard candy is not difficult to make. If you can purchase the base ingredients (elderberry, horehound, whatever) and follow a recipe to boil that down into sugar syrup, you can make safe lozenges at home. Here is one example: tastyeverafter.com/honey-le...

[findtheanswernow in reply to gothchiq]

Never thought about making my own cough drops - thanks for the idea!

[gothchiq]

Sure thing. I have sort of become a make my own everything person, because everything premade has got glycols!