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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning TikTokers against a trend that entails coating poultry, especially chicken, in NyQuil, a medication often prescribed for bouts of cold.
Several clips on the video-sharing platform showcased people sauteing chicken with the medication. The federal agency has since reminded netizens of the dangers behind doing so.
On the video-sharing platform, those participating in the trend are tagging it under the hashtag “sleepy chicken,” and the tag has garnered over 1.3 million videos. As the FDA intervened, NyQuil began trending on Twitter.
On September 15, the FDA declared that the challenge “sounds silly and unappetizing.” They also reminded TikTokers about its dangers:
“It could also be very unsafe. Boiling a medication can make it much more concentrated and change its properties in other ways. Even if you don’t eat the chicken, inhaling the medication’s vapors while cooking could cause high levels of the drugs to enter your body. It could also hurt your lungs.”
They also added that the trend could prompt netizens to put copious amounts of cold medicine into the dish, leading to severe health damage. The FDA ended its statement by asking parents and guardians to keep the counter medication away from children. They added:
"sit down with your children and discuss the dangers of misusing drugs and how social media trends can lead to real, sometimes irreversible, damage.”
Netizens react to the FDA’s interference in the NyQuil Chicken trend
It was appalling that TikTok users required federal intervention to stop participating in such dangerous trends. Many expressed disappointment in the lack of common sense among TikTok users. A few tweets online read:
Similar challenges find their way online
The NyQuil trend on the video-sharing platform is not the first to concern netizens. The Sleepy Chicken and Benadryl Challenge have invoked similar reactions of concern. Those participating in such trends were seen as being at risk of overdosing on diphenhydramine-containing allergy medicine.
Dr. Aaron Hartman, a physician and assistant clinical professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, explained the dangers of participating in such trends. In an interview with MIC, he said:
“When you cook cough medicine like NyQuil, you boil off the water and alcohol in it, leaving the chicken saturated with a super-concentrated amount of drugs in the meet.”
Overdosing on NyQuil, which contains dextromethorphan HBr, doxylamine succinate, and acetaminophen, can lead to fatal symptoms like severe dizziness, liver problems, breathing problems, and seizures in some cases.
Medical practitioners recommend that children between the ages of six and 11 should consume only 15 milliliters every six hours if necessary. Teenagers aged 12 and older should consume 30 milliliters every six hours if required. Adults should take 30 milliliters of the medication every six hours if necessary.
