Parents Are Giving Kids Unapproved CBD Products — Here's What Clinicians Need to Know

Narrative review addressing CBD pharmacology, legal and regulatory factors, usage patterns, current efficacy data, and safety concerns for pediatric CBD use. Includes recommendations for clinicians, public health officials, and researchers.

Children are not small adults — they metabolize drugs differently, their brains are still developing, and they can't consent to or self-manage their own treatment. The proliferation of unregulated CBD products being given to children creates risks that most parents aren't equipped to evaluate: variable product quality, unknown drug interactions, and the absence of pediatric efficacy data for conditions other than specific epilepsy syndromes.

This review connects the drug interaction evidence (RTHC-00091, 00112, 00123) to the specific vulnerability of pediatric patients. It also echoes the gap between access and evidence seen in RTHC-00142 (Alzheimer's qualifying condition) and RTHC-00139 (Canada's surveillance gaps) — CBD products are widely available and widely used in populations where the evidence doesn't support the use, and the regulatory framework doesn't protect the user.

Narrative review — not a systematic search. The pace of CBD product innovation and regulatory change means the landscape may shift quickly. Usage patterns are based on surveys that likely underestimate the true prevalence of pediatric CBD use. The review focuses on the U.S. regulatory environment; other countries have different frameworks. The absence of evidence for most pediatric conditions doesn't prove absence of benefit — it means the studies haven't been done.