Did you know calpol has e numbers in it?

They’re all preservatives by the looks of it. That’s why it has such a long shelf life.

I didn't know. But googling seems like they're banned from food and drink but still in calpol. I presume that's because we need food and drink everyday to sustain life, whereas calpol is only if you're sick and so the amount consumed vs food/drink is significantly less, maybe negligible.

The boots equivalent also has E numbers.

It’s worth bearing in mind that e-numbers are a labelling system for many chemicals that occur naturally in our food. Vitamin C is E300.

I imagine that “gone off” calpol without the e-numbers, which are largely preservatives, could make a child even sicker.

Some things need preservatives to have a shelf life.
The child isn’t having gallons of calpol a week.

It's in moderation in a must need situation, they are in the Calpol to preserve it, otherwise it would have to say use within 3days once opened

Idk..my baby has calpol once a month if that so I don’t really care

As others said, this would only be an issue if your child was drinking calpol as a an actual drink instead of milk or water. When taken as medication, the quantities of these ingredients ingested is so small that it can’t do damage. And as someone pointed out, mouldy calpol would be far worse for a child, so such preservatives are necessary.
And yep, a lot of actual vitamins and active medicinal ingredients have E number names for technical reasons. Just because something is an E number that doesn’t mean it’s automatically terrible.

I agree that its only an issue for calpol overusers, ie the ones who give for coughs n colds / things its not going to relieve. Otherwise calpol is a pretty rare occurrence, id imagine theres similar in a lot of medications etc tho where shelf life is crucial, i would prefer a free option even with an extremely short shelf life to be available tho, it would come in handy in times where your giving multiple doses on multiple days to make us feel a little better about it, although i never jump to calpol unless baby has a temp etc where it’s crucial as id rather try other things quickly first

E Numbers don’t automatically equal bad. For instance E101 is just vitamin B2, E100 is tumeric, E160c is paprika, E160d is lycopene (the natural substance that makes tomatoes red), E162 is beetroot juice, E330 is citric acid (found in citrus fruits), E375 is vitamin B3, E406 is a natural jelly made from algae, E913 is lanolin (same as what’s in nipple cream)… the list goes on of the amount of natural and safe E numbers.

I know all e numbers aren't bad, some are ok. This makes it so hard to know because as people say some are necessary.

However calpol is bright pink so I can believe there's potentially harmful unnecessary ones in there too.

If it’s the colour that is concerning you, you can buy a colour free version.

https://www.superdrug.com/baby/baby-medicine/childrens-pain-relief/calpol-infant-2-months-sugar-colour-free-suspension-100ml/p/283755