For many years both my children on the autism spectrum wore the Triaminic Vapor Patches on their chest when they were coughing. This was worn on their chest and at times on the shirt when sleeping. My nonverbal child was able to wear one to school many times. The scents were menthol and cherry and both were evident under his clothing, but helped ease the coughing at school and during sleep.

They were sold six in a box for about six or seven dollars. In December of 2000 they were recalled due to pouch seal failures, but were back on the market soon thereafter. During the summer of 2006 they were recalled again and have not been back on the market. This time there was a child that swallowed a patch and had a seizure. From what I read the child was fine after the incident with no further seizures. The active ingredients were camphor and menthol. The inactive ingredients were - acrylic ester, copolymer, aloe vera gel, eucalyptus oil, glycerin, karaya, proplyene glycol, purified water, wild cherry fragrance.

Since the fall season is when kids go back to school and start passing around germs this is when most parents go to the medicine cabinet to get over the counter medications. I always check for expiration dates and had a few patches left so we utilized those.

I went to several stores around September and could not locate any of the patches. A few stores told me they had to send back their stock since they were making changes to the product. Luckily I found more patches in my emergency earthquake kit to cover the fall season.

My high functioning son Nicholas likes the Triaminic cough strips so not having the patches did not affect him, but Matthew is non verbal and cannot tolerate any medicines, leaving me with no other options but the vaporizer and Vicks vapor rub.

Finally a Pharmacist at Target informed me that there was a recall on the Triaminic Patches. I did some google searches to learn more and even checked ebay and pharmacies in Canada in an attempt to purchase these patches. I called the toll-free number to Novartis and asked about the patches. The person on the phone told me they had received thousands of calls from consumers wanting this product back in the stores. I added my name to that list and gave the reason that this was the only product that worked for my severely autistic child.

One consumer posted that Tiger Balm has patches for pain that she used for her son and also a product called Naturopatch Eucalyptus that was purchased at www.beautyexclusive.com. I decided to make a purchase of the Eucalyptus patch. One single tin of the patches that contains ten easy to apply patches sells for $14.00 at www.beautyexclusive.com. I placed my order on December 30, 2006 and received it very quickly via UPS. The total including tax and shipping was $21.14. The tin was nicely wrapped in pink tissue paper with a bow along with two sample patches - for pain and stress.

These patches are thicker than the Triaminic patches, but the scent is less evident. They are also good for a twenty-four hour period. The size is the same at 3" x 2". The ingredients are - extra virgin olive oil, eucalyptus, camphor, peppermint, lemongrass and fir balsalm essential oils. No animals were tested. They are made in Vermont.

Once I received the tin I went to the website of Naturapatch of Vermont at www.naturopatch.com and placed my second order of the Eucalyptus patches for $15.00, with the total at Naturopatch being $18.50. Even though the actual site for the product sells them for one dollar more, they do not add sales tax and the shipping is cheaper as they use Federal Express, although there were no samples.

I highly recommend utilizing these patches for your child who might not be able to tolerate medicines to treat the common cold and coughs. I used the pain one on my knee one night and it worked very well on what I think is Osteoarthritis of the knee. The stress one is for the shoulder.

The catalog that comes along with each order shows the other patches in their line with illustrations showing where they are placed on the body for each ailment. There is one for PMS, Itch relief for eczema that I plan on adding to my next order, plus one that is an energy aid for focus. Besides selling them individually you can also get six tins per display for businesses, etc.

Naturopatch of Vermont

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