As a parent of young children I worry as much as the next person about my little ones becoming poorly - especially during the winter months when there seem to be a plethora of bugs and nasties doing the rounds.

We seem to have more than the usual coughs and colds to worry about at the moment with the dreaded 'swine flu' lurking around every corner and on every door handle. (I'm not actually sure where I stand on swine flu but that's another story...)

I was very interested to read an artice in this month's Ecologist about childhood ailments and in particular our reliance on 'Calpol' as a bit of a cure-all for our little angel's various sicknesses. I have reached for the Calpol on numerous occasions to combat a fever or to help ease the discomfort of chicken pox, or some such illness. So imagine my horror on reading this article and realising what is actually lurking WITHIN the Calpol bottle.

I think sometimes as parents we fail to see what is staring us in the face - in this case the ingredients - and  become reliant on what we come to believe is good for our children. Calpol, a paracetamol suspension, is the number one selling child pain relief medicine - accounting for over half of all sales. Worryingly a recent paper has suggested strong links between children given paracetamol from a young age and development of asthma, eczema and other allergies.

In addition to paracetamol, Calpol contains a cocktail of E-ingredients including E122 (a suspected carcinogen banned in Austria, Japan, Norway, Sweden and and US).

And this is what I have given to my babies when they have been unwell? :(

We are lucky that both of our children are robust and healthy. We feed them fresh, home cooked food and avoid processed foods. I'm sure that it is no co-incidence that they are rarely ill and I will be making an even greater effort to sustain their bodies and build their immunities in this way - in the hope that 'prevention is better than cure'. Hopefully when they are ill we will feel able to let their immune systems do the work, along with cuddles from Mummy and Daddy - rather than reaching for the Calpol.