We were just finishing up at the Shisanhang Museum in Bali when I noticed that my daughter was jutting her chin out in a defiant kind of pose. At first I didn't think too much of it - kids are weird, right? But over the course of 5-10 minutes, her head kept that position, in an increasingly weird angle, back and to the side, and she was moving a little erratically, in a slightly jerking fashion. At first it was just a slight tendency, noticeable only to me, but soon it became alarmingly obvious that something was not right.
I told the teacher I was taking her to the hospital. I called a taxi, and after a quick admission it was determined that she was having acute extrapyramidal symptoms as a side effect of the cold medication she had been taking, which I fortunately had on me. The drug is called metoclopramide, the brand name is Promeran, and the side effects are listed here. At no point was she in any pain, but she said she felt strange. (Later the doctor asked her how she felt when it happened, if she was nervous or scared, and she said no, because I was there.)
The doctors put her on an IV drip right away, and she quickly got better, but they kept her in the hospital for a couple of hours for observation and to test to make sure there’s no nerve damage or any other issues.
I had originally posted on FB, but got two PMs from friends who said they had had similar issues with their kids on that drug, so I thought I'd post it here as well.
