With flu season, packed hospitals, and a lack of children's medicine, parents are desperately trying to find ways to help their sick kids.
Since the Alberta government announced on Tuesday (Dec. 6) that they are working to move 5 million units of children's medicine into the province, many parents may find the relief they've been looking for.
Brooke Warford, a resident of Fort Saskatchewan, says her children, two-year-old Sadie and four-year-old Gavin, have been dealing with bronchitis, ear infections, and the flu.
"I went by Shoppers Drug Mart in the Fort, and I spoke to the pharmacist there," Warford said. "I said, 'What can I give my kids? The shelves are bare.'"
"[The pharmacist] said there's pretty much nothing that you can do. Unfortunately, everybody is in a situation where they're trying to give their kids some kind of relief."
Warford also said although she's happy that more medicine is coming into the province, she hopes that the medicine applies to infants and toddlers as well.
"It's not safe for toddlers to take any kind of decongestants," Warford said. "You can't just give your child a lower dose."
Meanwhile, other parents believe that it's too little too late, such as Charmisa Bechtel, whose five-year-old son Cohen has been sick with 'everything'.
"Most of the people who were sick are on the tail end of it," Bechtel said. "We needed help a while ago."
"In my instance, we've already gone through everything. It's been over a month and a half of sickness in our house, on top of Cohen's hernia surgery."
Despite this, Bechtel says that she knows kids who get sick in the future will have it.
"It's nice to have that relief that if you did need some, it's there now."
The new shipment will provide children's acetaminophen and ibuprofen to local pharmacies. If there is a surplus of medication, it's expected that the province may share the supplies with other provinces.