STAMFORD, Conn. — Three children in Connecticut have died in the past two months from overdoses of diphenhydramine, the antihistamine commonly sold under the brand name Benadryl, according to the state’s Office of the Child Advocate.
“That’s unusual. And definitely a cause for concern because it’s a lot,” said Dr. Krishnan Narasimhan, head of family medicine at Stamford Hospital.
Diphenhydramine has long been used to treat allergies, but physicians have increasingly moved away from recommending it in favor of newer medications.
Narasimhan said the drug’s side effects can be significant.
“It has a lot of side effects. It crosses the blood-brain barrier. And so one of the common things, if you’ve ever used diphenhydramine or given it to someone, is that they get very sedated,” he said.
State officials have not released the ages or locations of the victims. They also have not linked the deaths to the so-called Benadryl Challenge, a social media trend that first went viral in 2020 and has resurfaced periodically.
“This has been going on for years, starting with the Tide Pod Challenge, the cinnamon challenge. There’s so many things that we’ve talked to them for years and years about not doing any of these things, and they’re even considering it to talk to us first,” Stamford parent Michele Hayes said.
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The challenge encourages participants to take as many as 24 tablets in 24 hours to induce hallucinations, which are then recorded and posted online.
That amount is double the recommended adult dosage and, according to doctors, can impair breathing to the point of coma and cause other toxic effects.
“You can get severely agitated. You can have extra heartbeats. Which can lead to cardiac complications and actually can lead to cardiac arrest and death,” Narasimhan said.
Doctors advise families to secure all medications.
A family friend of one victim told ABC New York affiliate WABC that a 13-year-old girl in Waterbury had Benadryl delivered through DoorDash without an ID check.
The deaths remain under investigation.
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