This service is currently paused. As of Nov 14, 2022 the federal government has secured an additional supply of children’s acetaminophen products. We will reboot this service as soon as there is further need.

Become a member for free and be notified about other services.

Find children’s medicine, as soon as it's in stock.

There’s a shortage of children’s painkillers all over Canada — MedFinders is a community that helps parents locate relief.

Sign up to get an email when medicine is available near you. We won’t ask for money or use your data for anything else.

Step 1: Enter your info

Step 2: We find your medication

Our volunteers call pharmacies and regularly update our database.

Step 3: Get an alert

When stock arrives in your area, you automatically receive an email.

Step 4: Go get your medicine!

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is there a child medicine shortage?

The short answer is that there has been unprecedented demand over the past 4-5 months, and manufacturers have not kept up. The long answer is long, and at present unclear.

When will more medication become available?

Currently, there is some available at pharmacies, but more is being imported the week of November 21 - our job is to tell you as soon as it arrives on shelves near you! It’s hard to tell when things will go back to normal, which is why we created MedFinders - to get you whatever is available until then.

What are my options if I can’t find any medicine?

While MedFinders is your best bet for finding whatever is available, here are a few more intensive options:

  1. Split Adult Tablets - adult Tylenol/Advil tablets are just more concentrated versions of child/infant tablets. You can split adult tablets into smaller doses for administering to children - ask your pharmacist to help you with this! Do NOT just give your child adult Tylenol/Advil without talking to a pharmacist, as this can have serious health consequences.

  2. Get A Prescription - while acetaminophen (Tylenol) and ibuprofen (Advil) are over-the-counter medicines, a doctor’s prescription would allow you to get them made at compounding pharmacies or (in extreme cases) administered at a hospital.

  3. Go To The US - while this is not an accessible option for the majority of us, if you happen to be near the border or have friends/family coming from the US, you can take advantage of this! They are not experiencing a shortage, and the medication is exactly the same.

If you have signed up for MedFinders, and have exhausted the options above, you are doing all you can. Help is on its way!

How does MedFinders work?

After you submit your info, our volunteer team will call pharmacies in your area at least once a day to ask about the medicines you need. As soon as we find some, you’ll get an email with the pharmacies and their addresses!

As next steps, we’re working on allowing community members to pitch in information, getting a map of pharmacies up and running, and eventually expanding to other forms of medicine and care.

We will never ask for money, and we will never sell your data or give it to anyone else.