Doctors warn herb pillows bad for infants

HA NOI — Pillows stuffed with herbal remedies could be harmful for infant health despite much hyping from sellers, said Truong Viet Binh, director of the Viet Nam Academy of Traditional Medicine.

Nguyen Mai Huong, who owns a shop selling baby goods on Thai Thinh Street in Dong Da District, said pillows stuffed with herbal remedies could drive mosquitoes away, prevent babies from sweating and help them sleep.

"In the pillows, besides cotton wool, there are herbs such as huong nhu (holy basil) and ngai cuu (absinthe) which are very good for babies and adults as well," Huong said.

However, customers have complained about the pillows.

Having heard the positive sales-pitch, Dinh Ngoc Minh, who lives in Cau Giay District in Ha Noi, bought a set of pillows for her one-month-old son.

The set includes a pillow and a bolster for VND180,000 (US$9) but Minh's son tends to be uncomfortable, refuses to use the pillow and sweats a lot.

"The set has pungent smell which means my baby cries alot," Minh said.

Another mother, Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, living in Hai Ba Trung District, said once she dried the pillow of her two-month-old son in the sunshine and discovered that there were a number of tiny insects on the herbs in the pillow.

"I was frightened and threw the pillow away immediately," she said.

Experts also affirmed that pillows stuffed with herbal medicines would not have the effects as outlined by shopkeepers.

Binh said herbal medicines were good for treating diseases, but if people used the wrong ingredients and dosage, they would be harmful, especially for babies who have weak resistance.

"Using pillows with medicinal herbs whose origin and ingredients are unclear is dangerous. If the herbs have large amounts of essential oils, it can disorder the body's circulation," he said.

When children use this kind of pillow for a long period of time, their sweat becomes absorbed into the herbs and causes mould.

"The mould will lead to babies suffering from allergies, creating trouble for them sleeping," Binh said.

Tran Van Thuan, manager of Saint Paul Hospital's Traditional Medicine Division said that medicinal herb pillows could be harmful for babies because they could cause respiratory allergies.

No Vietnamese or Chinese scientific research had been carried out on effects of the pillow, Thuan said.

"As far as treatment is concerned, there are no methods which use a pillow to treat diseases. And we also do not have any research planned into the method," he added.

Medicinal herbs could be used as restorative, said Thuan, but they would only take effect when people stew them to drink and they would not have effect if used in pillows.

"If families have confidence in medicinal herbs pillows, they should dry the pillows regularly to avoid mould and other associated problems," Thuan said. — VNS