A new documentary following the over-prescription of medicine to children has described Calpol as the ‘Heroin of childhood’.

‘The Doctor who Gave up Drugs’ aired on the BBC this week with Dr Chris Van Tulleken investigating the impact of prescription drugs on children under 18.

Dr Tulleken found that parents are giving their children more than three times the amount of medication they actually need, which is causing dependencies.

The doctors own GP branded, Calpol, a medicine given to children containing paracetamol with a strawberry flavour ‘The heroin of childhood’.

Calpol has been a staple in parents medicine cupboards for the last 50 years and have been a great source of advice.

They say that the products can help relieve stuffy noses, soar throats, aches and pains, fever and teething.

Dr Tulleken said that kids are becoming addicted not to the medicine itself, but the placebo effect of feeling a little down and being given Calpol.

So what do you think? Do you give your child more medication than they actually need?