Placebos for kids? Really?

Children may need medication for a variety of reasons -- high fevers, for one. Most of the time, their complaints can be handled through simple home remedies, a little rest, or a bandage and a kiss. But one mom wants to take the TLC a step further. She's created a placebo pill that parents can give to children to make them believe they're feeling better.

The pill is known as Obecalp (placebo spelled backward) and is a simple sugar pill that has the look and feel of medication. Jennifer Buettner, the mom behind Obecalp, created the pill for parents who want to help their kids feel better, but don't want to give them unnecessary medications.

The product is not without critics: "As a parent of three now grown children," said Franklin G. Miller, bioethicist at the National Institutes of Health, "I can't think of a single instance where I'd want to give a placebo." My concern is that by giving a placebo, parents might be teaching children that reaching for a pill bottle is the only way to feel better. We recently learned that over half of Americans are taking prescription drugs, do we really want to encourage the idea that health comes from a bottle?

Buettner says she expected controversy and is prepared for it. Would you ever use a placebo on your child?