11 Months Old: Teeth, Talking, and Tylenol

I cannot believe that in less than a month, my baby girl will be one-year-old. That is insane. She is so big now, it makes me sad how fast she is growing.

She walks like a champ now and spends most of her time getting into drawers and pulling everything out of them. Surprise, surprise. She also has three little teeth now, with her 4th one on the way. Poor thing has swollen gums and is not a happy camper.

She can also say a few words. She says mama, dada, and kitty cat. Or at least she attempts to say kitty cat. It comes out more like KitKat.

Now back to this whole teething thing. Maybe I'm just behind the curve on this one, but I think Tylenol has been pulling a scam on us moms. I try to avoid giving my daughter Tylenol for teething pain. She usually does just fine with teething rings or Hyland's teething tablets. However, if she is clearly in pain, I'll give her some infant Tylenol.

Infant tylenol.

I've been under the assumption that infant Tylenol is somehow different from children's Tylenol. I believed this because one box says Infants while the other says Children age 2-11. Obviously, if they are packaged this way they must somehow be different. The concentration of acetaminophen must be higher in the children's Tylenol.

Wrong.

Both packages say 160mg of acetominaphen per 5ml. Both boxes say for children under 2 years and under 24 pounds, ask your doctor. They are the same exact thing.

So what's the big deal? Money.

People with babies are willing to pay significantly more for a product labeled "infant" than they are for a product labeled "children." They think it is designed for babies rather than a full grown child. They think it is somehow better for their baby, so they will pay more for it.

Don't believe me?

Pop on over to Target, Walmart, or any store that carries Tylenol. The examples below are from Target. I highlighted the label information in a red box on each image.

Here is the link.

Here is the link.

You will pay $5.69 for 4oz of children's Tylenol ($1.42/oz) vs $7.99 for 2oz of infant Tylenol ($3.99/oz). That is almost 3X the cost. The difference? A picture of a baby vs a picture of a child on the box.

Note: This is NOT true for Motrin. Motrin has different concentrations for infants and children. Always be sure to read the label. If I had been, I would've caught on to the Tylenol shenanigans before now.