Excipients in children’s medicines

This leaflet offers advice about the common ingredients used to make up children’s medicines. These ingredients are called ‘excipients’

All forms of medicine contain ingredients as well as the drug – these are called excipients.
Excipients don’t have any medical effect but they are needed for a variety of reasons, such as to improve the taste or texture or to preserve the medicine to make it last longer.
All excipients have been reviewed by the healthcare regulatory agencies to make sure they are safe for use in human medicine.
Some patients may want to avoid particular excipients for a variety of reasons.
You should tell your doctor or pharmacist if your child needs to avoid a particular excipient, as they may be able to provide a different version of the medicine.
However, most medicines contain only very small amounts of excipients that are unlikely to cause any problems.

Download the leaflet from medicinesforchildren.org.uk here: excipients-in-medicines-1.pdf