In my opinion has not been stored properly. It needs to be kept in a refridgerator at a temp that germs cannot multiply. Taken out only for dosing and put back immediately. (We do this with liquid Paracetomol for babies so there is no reason why hct suspension could not be ok). Personally, I would not add flavoring IF it contained sugar anyway. Some flavoring do not have sugar. Any case, I wouldn't be bothered as long as my son was dosed correctly what flavor it was as long as it did the trick. They have used pharmacy based suspension for years. Far longer than liquid cortef. That one particular bactch was recalled because it was faulty. Parents have a right to dose their childs meds how they feel best comfortable doing. Some may understandably shy away from "ANY" suspension, but then that is their decision. I disagree with dosing my child to the nearest available in a tablet if it restricts his growth and affects his emotions. Perhaps Doctors may have the attitude that "A" life is better than none at all, but the point in all this is that they are just meant to replace the childs needs and just a little "dot" more to make sure that their adrenals are suppressed. Too much and the child will have issues with calcium loss. I feel this whole issue of the liquid cortef (mass produced suspension) has clouded a perfectly good way of dosing these kids. It may cause untold damage in years from now when they are all a lot shorter. yes "shorter" can occur with "too much" as opposed to "too little" also. Not only that but bone loss is no fun and neither is breaking bones. As far as I am concerned if a child is not tuned to this extent or monitored frequently then the Doctors have not even "breathed" in the direction of trying to control them. If people want to use tablets, then that is there right suppose. But it is mine to have a choice in how I dose my child. Roberta Sounds awful what happened to your child. I do not blame you for wanting the tablets and to stay with them. however, I have used the suspension and it was fine. The problem with something being mass produced and made in large quantities, is that if they change an ingredient or it is degraded in transit from the manufacturer, then that one mistake can affect thousands of lives as opposed to one childs life in one week. Even if a pharmacist makes a mistake ONE week, it would be picked up soon enough and would only affect one child. I know of NO ONE who has had a child be sick on pharmacy made suspension. My pharmacist used to make it and keep it refriderated and bring it to my home in a cooly bin. He was so conscientous he wanted to make sure that it went straight into the refrigerator I guess. We never had any problem and all dose raises where fractional. I note that back then in 1992, soe children were using UPJOHN liquid cortef and that they were becoming sick. To be honest, it was always considered as unstable in my opinion, as my sons consultant would not script it then 10 years ago. I complained as I needed it to travel with and it was able to be kept outside the fridge and up to three weeks after opening (or so they claimed!). I guess they knew back then that the pharmacy made suspension was the better and safer way to go. It was only a matter of time before a "bad batch" was put out and cause problems. What I fail to understand is, if children where known to have had problems on it 10 years ago, why they took so long to recall the product and shelve it? In the UK, they only used it in the South of the country and I had a friend whose daughter was in hospital constantly. She would recover then go home and be back on that stuff and get sick again. Eventually they stopped using it alltogether from what I gathered in their case and just used the pharmacy made stuff. Here in NZ, they are stopping parents using it as opposed to tablets because it costs too much at the end of the day. Since they have never subsidized it, I cannot see how this Endo can say "it" is unstable, but I had the feeling today that all claims for subsidy have his attention somehow. That to me sounds like cost cutting and lack of knowledge about the stuff. I note he let's babies use the stuff and says they have had NO problem so far. ;) Regards Val