Availability of children's Advil/Tylenol

October 24, 2022 10:40 AM

I will be in Atlanta for work next week. Will I be able to find children's pain and fever meds on shelves at CVS and other pharmacies?

I'm coming from Ontario, where there is a massive shortage, and looking to buy a few boxes for family, friends and colleagues with little ones.

posted by walkinginsunshine to Shopping (13 answers total)

I've never seen an issue with getting them (I live in a suburb of Atlanta). They might be out of the generic so you'll have to pay for name brand.
posted by heathrowga at 10:57 AM on October 24, 2022 [5 favorites]

It just depends. Some stores are having stock issues and some are not. Some have only generics and some have only name brands. I would recommend that you don't give up at the first place you try.
posted by cooker girl at 11:09 AM on October 24, 2022 [5 favorites]

If you are flying, make sure you buy small enough bottles to get through TSA.

Or do they not care about liquids in your non-carry on luggage? (Haven't flown in about a decade, so, unsure).
posted by Windopaene at 11:19 AM on October 24, 2022

I know from experience that Target has close to real time inventory on their website once you pick a location (as long as you click the shopping for in-store pickup option). CVS and Walgreens both have options to show items for pickup as well, though I don't have the experience to know how accurate they are.

Regardless, all three of those chains have lots of those medications in stock here in the midwest. I assume Atlanta will also be good.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 11:19 AM on October 24, 2022 [7 favorites]

I live in a suburb of Atlanta and regularly buy these... in general they are available, although a lot of stores might be picked over. But it's definitely worth trying.
posted by madcaptenor at 11:23 AM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

Consider ordering them online to be shipped to wherever you're staying. With a week's window, it should be doable. That way you avoid the vagaries of local retail stocking.
posted by praemunire at 11:34 AM on October 24, 2022

Just to note: in the US, Children's Tylenol and Infant Tylenol have the exact same strength. (I believe 160mg per 5ml). The only difference is that infants Tylenol is packaged with a syringe and children's Tylenol is packaged with a cup. I won't go into the whole history why but if you buy infant Tylenol in the US, the dosing will be different than in Canada (which is 80mg/ml).
posted by muddgirl at 12:13 PM on October 24, 2022 [9 favorites]

I'm coming from Ontario, where there is a massive shortage, and looking to buy a few boxes for family, friends and colleagues with little ones.

I don't know about Atlanta per se but I had a family member visiting Baltimore from Ontario this weekend and we walked into a random CVS and picked up some off the shelf with no preplanning; whatever is going on in Ontario isn't particularly affecting the US east coast as far as I can tell.
posted by advil at 1:36 PM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

As advil said, kids medicine dosage seems to occasionally vary from country to country, and you really want to use the dosage tool that came withe the device, and not from say another box you've got at home. Keep any dosage info if it's not clearly on the bottle and cup/syringe with the medicine. The box makes it handy to keep everything together, so maybe don't maul it like I invariably do. Get a knife like an adult. But keep the bits and pieces together and clean if you can, it makes everything much easier when your kid is sick in the middle of the night and you can barely think let alone do simple math.
posted by Geckwoistmeinauto at 2:02 PM on October 24, 2022

I don't know if this is true everywhere but in the US they don't put dosing information for kids under 2 on the box. We had to get dosing info from our pediatrician based on weight. But I think that pharmacists can also provide dosing info, you will need to provide the concentration from the box and the child's weight.
posted by muddgirl at 4:35 PM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

There is essentially a standard dosage chart you can find by Googling. Here it is on the web site of the pediatric practice we go to. It gives concentrations so you can confirm.
posted by madcaptenor at 5:30 PM on October 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

I see a lot of mention of liquids, but none of chewables, which would avoid the flight restrictions thing on liquids, I think?

Since you're asking for Children's and not Infants, I sort of assumed that chewables were what you'd be after, anyway. (so much less hassle!)

The big chains are often flip drastically between fully-stocked and empty, depending on how long ago the shipment arrived. If you have any trouble finding it, don't forget that in addition to the big box stores (generally the first place people go), pharmacies & grocery store chains almost all seem to carry generics of these two items, too, in addition to the name brand.

OH! and while the strength of between Children's and Infants liquid Tylenol/ acetaminophen is the same, that is NOT the case for Advil/ Motrin/ ibuprofen. You'll need to check the package carefully on it.
posted by stormyteal at 11:20 PM on October 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

Small independent pharmacies tend to have it longer than the big chains as they have less foot traffic. I live in Ontario too and have been able to find cough syrup (also having a shortage) in a few smaller independent pharmacies and in smaller towns.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 4:54 AM on October 25, 2022