A fruit-flavoured sugar pill which parents can use to soothe childhood aches and pains has been criticised. The pills are already on sale in the US, costing $6 for a bottle of 50.
They harness the "placebo effect", which makes some people feel better because they falsely believe they have had medicine. One UK scientist said it could make children rely on pills later in life, and another accused the makers of "medicalising love".
Although US doctors are forbidden from prescribing a placebo for their patients, there is nothing to stop the pills being marketed as a health supplement.
Jennifer Buettner, whose company "Efficacy" makes "Obecalp" - placebo spelled backwards - said that there were plans to market the pills in the UK.
She said they stimulated the body to "heal itself".
However, Dr Douglas Kamerow, an associate editor of the British Medical Journal, said that it was a "deeply bad idea".
When children grew old enough to realise they had been deceived, he wrote, it could damage the trust they have for their parents.
He added: "If parents use placebos to comfort their children, what are they teaching them? That tablets are the answer for all our aches and pains, and perhaps all our other problems too? Not advisable.
"I don't buy the argument that giving a child a placebo pill is just like putting a plaster on a scratch.
"Sure, there are kids who end up wanting a very colourful plaster for every possible ache and injury, but I have never seen an adult addicted to plasters - although I've have seen very many adults who want a pill for every ill."
Dr Clare Gerada, from the Royal College of GPs, said that the pill "medicalised love".
"It is telling them that unless you give your children this pill, there's nothing else."
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This looks like an excellent area to practice discernment. Placebo medicine can work very well -
even remove warts - especially in children who are typically suggestible.
To try and ban placebos because it teaches dependence on medicine to solve ills doesn't ring true, as many expensive medicines are essentially placebos - so in that respect, the horse has already left the barn. Placebos are already in wide use and drug companies are making billions off of them -- so a few bucks for a bottle of pills a parent can use to help a child through a rough spot seems pretty reasonable.
My take on this is placebos have a place and can be a demonstration of love, much like a kiss on a child's boo-boo to make it better. But I also think one would not want to demonstrate relying on pills to fix anything that hurts - that dealing with pain is a part of life and learning and growing.