A deadly and dangerous viral trend is making a comeback, and it landed a 13-year-old New Jersey boy in the hospital — as his mother hopes her son's story serves as a wake-up call for other parents.
It's called the "Benadryl Challenge," which first made the rounds several years ago and prompted the FDA to issue a warning, stating that overdosing on the over-the-counter allergy drug can be fatal. The medication's labeling has warnings as well.
The Monmouth County teen was rushed to the emergency room at Riverview Hospital in Red Bank earlier in April after swallowing an unknown number of Benadryl allergy pills while his parents were out on a rare date night. His condition was so dire, he was moved to Jersey Shore University Medical Center soon after.
His mother, who did not wish to share her name, said in a phone interview with NBC New York that her son "was curled in a fetal position on the floor, eyes dilated, like staring into space, couldn’t move, couldn’t walk.”
Dr. Stacey Doumas, a psychiatrist at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, said that education goes a long way in avoiding such scenes.
"I think pretty often the kids are pretty uneducated about these things, and they don’t realize how dangerous it might be," said Dr. Doumas. "They think so many people have done it already, so they must know what they’re doing, so it must be OK...They’re not reading the real news, they’re seeing the challenges and stuff like that and they don’t realize the real dangers, that someone died from doing this."
The so-called "Benadryl Challenge" has recently made something of a comeback, and now TikTok has blocked the search for any video with the Benadryl name in it. The company said it has done so since 2020.
And yet the craze persists on the internet. In Ohio, 13-year-old Jacob Stevens died earlier in April after consuming a dozen or so pills in an apparent attempt to get high.
"Watch your kids because Jacob had taken Benadryl ever since he was a little tiny kid. And I don't think that he would have ever thought that it would have hurt him," said his grandmother, Dianna Stevens.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
Back in New Jersey, the 13-year-old has now recovered after being in an ICU room at Jersey Shore. His mom said he doesn’t yet appreciate the gravity of what happened, but says he is remorseful.
"We need awareness to help our children and ourselves to become aware of the danger," the mother said. "We need a safety plan now, and every parent should have one.”
The mother said that she has now locked up all the medications in the house — a very good idea, according to Dr. Doumas.
"From when they’re little you hide dangerous medications so they don’t accidentally take something. As they get older you hide dangerous medications so they don’t intentionally take something," Dr. Doumas said.
The maker of Benadryl, Johnson & Johnson, calls the challenge "a dangerous trend and should be stopped immediately."
