New Zealand research recently suggested that the risk of childhood asthma can be dramatically increased by the child's use of paracetamol.  Regardless, health officials recommended that parents keep using the product.  This looks like another case of a treatment causing just as many problems in the body as it solves.  Luckily, there's another way to look at fever and discomfort, the main reasons people use paracetamol.  You might find that you can leave it happily locked away.  Read more here .  (This pdf first appeared in "The Star" in Sept 2008).