Moms crew Claritin and the Ftc. My thoughts

     I must say, that I am rather apalled at the level of ignorance among seemingly intelligent people. These blogs are all about testing out products and talking about them. That is what we do. Yet now we are beset by the self righteous ignorance of a few petty people with a soap box to sell. In particular, I mention as an example a blogger known as Mary Tyler Mom, who honestly seems to think that we held parties to drug our children. She actually said we handed out medicine like popcorn. As if we put a bunch of pills in a bowl and passed it out with soda. I cannot believe such rediculousness and the level of ignorance it shows. Ah well, therin lies the two edged sword of blogging. It can be a way of expressing one's self in a positive light, and it can also make you look like a fool. We held a party to discuss the medicine. We tried the medicine. My children have been using antihistimines every year for years because of allergies. We administer medicine, not the children. We administer medicine in a responsible manner, according to directions. I am no more going to let my child choose or administer medicine any more than I am going to let them choose and fire a handgun. Our medicine is in a high cabinet away from little hands, as all medicine should be. To think that a picture on a package is a deciding factor on what and how to administer medicine to a child is ludicrous. To think that I let my children choose what to buy for me is even more so. Medicine is not a treat, but medicine. I do not care for packaging, I care for what works, which is what this party in particular was about; moms getting together to discuss whether or not this product works.
    Now to the concept that packaging will make kids pretend to have allergies, I wonder how it is possible for a child to fake allergy symptoms. More importantly, I wonder how it is possible for a mom to really be fooled. I suppose I can't speak for all moms and children the world over, but I am confidently sure that my child cannot fake me that well. A mom can tell when her child is sick.
    Do you refuse to buy flavored cough medicine? Is it wrong to use a product that has flavor? Consider this logic, if your child comes to you and says he/she has a cough, and they want the bubble gum flavor, does the child have the power, or the adult who gives it? So what sense does it make to fight over the packaging, unless the day comes when a child can go to the store to buy this stuff on their own? Now if you think I buy this stuff because it has a picture on the front, please go back and read my earlier paragraphs.
    When I buy toothpaste, I sometimes buy the packages with characters on them. Why not, if it helps the children to like brushing their teeth? I buy vitamins, and I get the flavored gummies with characters. I see no problem with these things. I buy flavored cough medicine, because they are more likely to drink it. If I buy a flavored antihistimine for the same reason, I see no harm. It is not as though I leave medicine on the counter for the kids to rifle through. It is not as though I take requests for this sort of thing. No responsible parent lets their children dothese things. If a picture on the package lets the kids take what they need to get better, what is the harm? Just because something is cute, does not make it necessary. A parent chooses what is necessary for the health of the child. That is the job of a responsible parent.
    Now I get the concern about the packaging. I don't share it for the a fore mentioned reasons, but everyone has an opinion. If that is a serious concern for you, talk to the company. If your problem is with Claritin, talk to Claritin. Don't bad mouth mothers who are only trying to test a product. We do not work for "Big Pharma". We do not get a commission. These blogs are about the product, not the name, not the marketing. Take your issues with them about those things. I also want to say that i am a moms crew member and I am proud to be one. We were given a chance to try a product and share our honest thought on the product with other moms, while the children were pleasantly watching a video or playing a game. The advertisement of the characters were on the outside of the box, not on the bottle and for the record how many parents keep the box that the medicine came in and further more you could easily remove the Madagascar  part of the packaging and not harm the box in anyway.  If you were at any of these parties you would have seem that the children were entertained by the activities while the parents enjoyed a conversation about claritin.