the dangers of using codeine in kids
April 2013
Please see Health Canada's June 2013 recommendation to avoid codeine in all children
Codeine is a "prodrug"...it's not active until it's metabolized to morphine by the liver. This can be a problem because the amount of morphine produced varies from person to person.
It gets scary because some kids metabolize codeine super fast, so they produce HIGHER than expected levels of morphine. This puts some kids at risk for breathing problems and death from unintended overdose.
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