Iodine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Iodine is a medicine sold in the U.S. under one brand. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Available as
- Liquid
- Sold as
- Iodine
- Generic available?
- Yes
- What the pharmacy pays
- about $0.07 per ml — not your price
Every iodine product we track (1)
Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.
Only one: Iodine.
Combination products containing iodine
A combination is a different drug — different dosing, different warnings. It is listed here so you can find it, not so you can substitute it.
Iodine and breastfeeding
From LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s Drugs and Lactation Database — quoted, not rewritten.
Full LactMed record for iodine: levels in milk, effects in breastfed infants, and the drugs it would consider insteadIodine is an essential trace nutrient for all infants that is a normal component of breastmilk. Infant requirements are estimated to be 15 mcg/kg daily in full-term infants and 30 mcg/kg daily in preterm infants. Breastmilk iodine concentration correlates well with maternal urinary iodine concentration and may be a useful index of iodine sufficiency in infants under 2 years of age, but there is no clear agreement on a value that indicates iodine sufficiency, and may not correlate with infant thyroid function tests. A milk iodine value of 100 to 200 mcg/L has been suggested to indicate adequate iodine status in lactating women, although a range as wide as 60 to 465 mcg/L has been proposed. Systematic reviews and studies on iodine nutrition found that iodine in breastmilk is adequate in iodine-sufficient countries, but in countries with iodine fortification of foods, many mothers did not obtain adequate iodine and that additional supplementation was desirable. In iodine-deficient areas, supplementation of breastfeeding mothers with iodine appears to be more effective than direct supplementation of the infant in reducing infant iodine deficiency. In the United States, a total iodine intake of 290 mcg daily is recommended during lactation; the WHO recommends a total intake of 250 mcg daily. The American Thyroid Association recommends that breastfeeding women should supplement their diet with a daily oral supplement that contains 150 mcg of iodine. Studies of lactating women in the United States found that the median urinary iodine concentration between 2001 and 2020 was 103.0 mcg/L (95% CI 86.1 to 143.5), indicating that many women fell below the minimum level of 100 mcg/L. Vegan and vegetarian mothers appear to have reduced iodine concentrations in their milk and should use iodine supplements. A survey in the United States between 2011 and 2014 found that only 19% of lactating women used a dietary supplement that contained iodine. One study found improved neurodevelopment in the infants of mothers who received 150 mcg of iodine daily during breastfeeding, but a dose of 300 mcg daily did not further improve the outcome.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, record revised June 15, 2026. LactMed states its information is not a substitute for professional judgement.
What people report to the FDA about iodine
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 6,977 reports naming iodine, and the FDA flagged 75% of those reports as serious. The effects reported most often — leaving out reports about overdose, misuse or the condition being treated, which dominate the raw list for common medicines:
- drug hypersensitivity1,278 reports
- nausea670 reports
- fatigue543 reports
- dyspnoea528 reports
- diarrhoea520 reports
- headache473 reports
- arthralgia465 reports
- vomiting452 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean iodine caused the effect — anyone can file one, and many describe people taking several medicines for several conditions. Crucially there is no denominator: FAERS does not record how many people took the drug, so these counts cannot be turned into “X% of patients” — a bigger number often just means a more widely used or more talked-about drug. Duplicates exist, and publicity drives reporting. For what is actually established, read the FDA label section above.
Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved July 25, 2026.
Related calculators
Frequently asked questions
Can you take iodine with other medicines?
It depends on the medicine. We check it against the FDA labels rather than guessing: our interaction checker searches each drug's own label for the other and quotes what it says, naming the section it came from. Run iodine against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.
What forms does iodine come in?
Across the brands we track, iodine is currently marketed as liquid, per the FDA's National Drug Code Directory. Each form is dosed differently — follow the label for the exact product you were prescribed.
Is there a generic iodine?
Yes. Our catalog lists 1 generic iodine product alongside the brand versions. A generic has the same active ingredient and must meet the FDA's bioequivalence standard; it usually costs less. Ask your pharmacist which one your plan covers.
Cite this page
- APA
- pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Iodine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/iodine
- MLA
- “Iodine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/iodine.
We summarise public FDA and NIH sources — for a clinical claim, cite the primary source we link to as well.
Sources: FDA openFDA drug label, National Drug Code Directory, and Enforcement (recall) database. This page reproduces public FDA data and is not medical advice. Dosing is set by your prescriber.
Read the full FDA label for iodine on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.