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Original poster

The Europeans do it so why don’t we??

127 replies

MatildaM92 · 18/08/2023 15:26

Why do us Brits seem to have such an aversion to using suppositories compared to Europeans?

I myself have used glycerin suppositories when I’m constipated, and my daughter has had to have paracetamol ones when she can’t keep anything down with sick bugs etc. I just pop some rubber gloves on and a dab of vaseline and get on with it. Ok admittedly my daughter doesn’t love it (and neither do I) but she knows it helps her get better more quickly.

My husband grew up in France and always finds it strange that they aren’t used more commonly here, people of all ages use them over there for all matter of ailments.

Are we just too delicate to deal with bottoms??

OP posts:
ASGIRC · 18/08/2023 17:32

IHateWasps · 18/08/2023 15:33

We are Europeans!

Thank you!!!

I remember being a child, in Portugal, and having suppositories as a kid and honestly, id rather not.
As a grown woman, I haven been on much medication, so havent come across many suppositories in adulthood.
Im not sure what the benefit of a suppository would be.

PoshPineapple · 18/08/2023 17:34

My doctor gave me some suppositories once for constipation. I went back after 3 days and said I was still blocked up. He asked me if I'd used all the pills - I told him that I may as well have stuck them up my arse for all the good they did.

SuffolkUnicorn · 18/08/2023 17:35

British I’ve used them for years

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

General health
Laiste · 18/08/2023 17:39

I have a vague recollection of being given suppositories to help after DD1 was born. I was very badly bruised (ventouse) and had stitches all over the place.

I remember - sorry about this - leaking as they melted. The waxy coating which makes them slippy would melt 'out'.

That's one drawback that would put me off ...

AgeingDoc · 18/08/2023 17:40

pizzaHeart · 18/08/2023 17:14

I think people are deliberately missing the point. No one says to move completely on suppositories but they can be easier available as an option. They practically saved us when DD was tiny baby and refused paracetamol.
Sometimes suppositories work better sometimes tablets or liquid but getting something other than tablets are much more difficult in UK, practically impossible.

Absolutely.
Giving medication orally is usually the preferred option but for that to be safe and effective the patient needs to be fully conscious and cooperative, have a safe swallow and a normally functioning upper GI tract. If any of those things aren't the case then suppositories can be really useful and sometimes avoid the need for an intravenous cannula.
I always had paracetamol suppositories in stock at home when my children were little. One in particular was a nightmare to get oral medicine into and given the choice of 30 seconds to administer a paracetamol suppository and certainty that the correct dose had been administered or half an hour of coaxing, everyone upset, pink sticky goo all over the place with an undetermined amount actually inside the child I know what I found preferable!
I don't think anyone is suggesting suppositories should be first choice on all occasions but they can be extremely useful, particularly for a child who is vomiting or won't take oral medication. It would be good to for them to be more widely/cheaply available and people to be less squeamish about the idea.

JusthereforXmas · 18/08/2023 17:46

I was FORCED to have them as a child for migraines... I saw zero added benefit over oral medication but suffered a lot of trauma from being pinned down by adults and assaulted.

ConfusedGin · 18/08/2023 17:48

I really hoped this was about month long summer closures or siestas.

JusthereforXmas · 18/08/2023 17:54

itsgettingweird · 18/08/2023 17:20

Bread and cheese is absolutely a meal!!!

My son was born abroad and used suppositories. But he was a baby/ toddler.

We do have a different attitudes to bodies here. Even down to sunbathing topless.

I'm perfectly comfortable with my tits out... less so with stuff being rammed up my anus.

We also shouldn't be encouraging people to shove more up there, quite a lot of medical admission are the result of things being placed into the bottom which it is NOT designed for.

pollykitty · 18/08/2023 17:58

I think it’s obvious why people have an aversion to it, my question is why are the French so obsessed?
I had a weird polyp (totally benign) in my arse years ago that I could feel when pooping and until they figured out what it was, had so many arse exams and things put in my arse. It was f-ing awful. never again.

NotYeti · 18/08/2023 17:58

Urgh I'm European and had my paracetamol etc in the form of suppositories as a child. It was awful. I wasn't able to swallow tablets so my parents went for the suppositories, and I always wondered why they couldn't have just ground up my tablets and given them to me in a small cup of juice like my friends' parents did. (We didn't have liquid paracetamol like Calpol back in the day.) Even my mum said it was very frustrating as the second they would manage to get one in I would go and poo it out. 💩 I would much prefer oral paracetamol!

I have a child who generally refuses Calpol but if I mix it with yoghurt it's fine. 😁

My parents also popped the thermometer up my bum if I was ill and I still can't see why they couldn't have just put it under my arm. I asked my mum about it the other day and she said that it was just the done thing. 🙄

spitefulandbadgrammar · 18/08/2023 17:58

You could probably syringe calpol up your bum if you were so inclined.

viques · 18/08/2023 18:01

tescocreditcard · 18/08/2023 15:27

They're a pain in the arse.

Crack on with you and your puns!

Laiste · 18/08/2023 18:04

This has thrown up a bit of serious thinking here now.

When DD4 (now 8) was really small she was a nightmare for giving medicine to. Screaming, crying, spitting it out, getting sooo stressed it was almost worse for her to try! But she often had illnesses with very high temps and needed paracetamol to bring it down. The nights i've spent coaxing teeny weeny dabs of baby's fromage frais laced with a bit of calpol past her lips - only for her to suddenly taste it or sense somehow what i was at and gag and throw it all up and become hysterical all over again .... so distressing.

BUT
would she have let me push a suppositary up her bottom? I'm thinking not to be honest! I'd have rather struggled on with the yogurt and calpol than fought for that!

PollyAmour · 18/08/2023 18:07

Is this the poo troll in disguise?

vodkaredbullgirl · 18/08/2023 18:09

PollyAmour · 18/08/2023 18:07

Is this the poo troll in disguise?

Could be 1st post and that they not come back, yet.

ChrisPPancake · 18/08/2023 18:09

MonumentalLentil · 18/08/2023 16:06

No need to get arsey about it,

Show quote history

Snort Grin

ChrisPPancake · 18/08/2023 18:10

I had buscopan suppositories in Italy and France. Pretty annoyed you can't get them in the UK tbh.

WiddlinDiddlin · 18/08/2023 18:13

Ahh the Friday Bum Thread..

There are times I can't keep anything down and need medication, so yeah, suppositories are better than vomiting up stuff you actually need to take.

They DO work faster, you're not relying on having stomach acid to dissolve the tablet, which you may not have if you're feeling crappy and puking, as they're designed to dissolve and absorbed into the blood stream by the rectal lining (which has a lot of blood vessels).

Oral tablets are generally not designed to dissolve that fast (and some are purposely designed to dissolve really slowly). For some of us thats a big issue, for example in a bout of gastroparesis, stuff will sit in my stomach for days and just.. ferment and rot (and then i throw up), so taking meds and ensuring i am actually getting them on schedule is really hard.

If you have a stoma, some meds can be put in that way, but they may well get shoved straight back out again. If you have a bumhole, they can still go up there, you still have blood vessels in there, the system doesn't have to be connected up - however if you have a Barbie Butt... no bumhole, obvs... not.

AgeingDoc · 18/08/2023 18:13

would she have let me push a suppositary up her bottom? I'm thinking not to be honest! I'd have rather struggled on with the yogurt and calpol than fought for that!
Very much age dependent I would say.
In my experience it's not difficult in a baby/toddler who is in nappies - unless they are very uncooperative having a nappy change I suppose. Adds literally seconds to a nappy change. Different for an older child obviously.

Inmybirthdaysuit · 18/08/2023 18:13

JusthereforXmas · 18/08/2023 17:46

I was FORCED to have them as a child for migraines... I saw zero added benefit over oral medication but suffered a lot of trauma from being pinned down by adults and assaulted.

You see my son felt the opposite, he felt like he was being assaulted when he had to be held down to be given medicine tha he would then vomit up. Suppositories were over in a second and he didn't mind at all. Everyone is different and every child is different. Like someone else said no one is saying that they are the right choice for every circumstance but they are a valid choice that should be available/affordable for the circumstances where they are the right choice.

Clarabe1 · 18/08/2023 18:16

Because we are British that is why. Sticking a paracetamol up your arse? No thank you.

Inmybirthdaysuit · 18/08/2023 18:17

Laiste · 18/08/2023 18:04

This has thrown up a bit of serious thinking here now.

When DD4 (now 8) was really small she was a nightmare for giving medicine to. Screaming, crying, spitting it out, getting sooo stressed it was almost worse for her to try! But she often had illnesses with very high temps and needed paracetamol to bring it down. The nights i've spent coaxing teeny weeny dabs of baby's fromage frais laced with a bit of calpol past her lips - only for her to suddenly taste it or sense somehow what i was at and gag and throw it all up and become hysterical all over again .... so distressing.

BUT
would she have let me push a suppositary up her bottom? I'm thinking not to be honest! I'd have rather struggled on with the yogurt and calpol than fought for that!

At nappy changing age my ds didn't even really notice. It was literally a 2 second job when changing his bum. He had temps all of the time with every sniffle and they were a total game-changer, especially because he had febrile convulsions.

fridaynight1 · 18/08/2023 18:18

Ugh. I had a childhood of suppositories- my mother was obsessed with me going to the loo every day. She could not get her head round the fact that sometimes I just didn’t need to ‘go’

ICanBuyMyOwnBooks · 18/08/2023 18:19

Maybe we have more poo trolls here so people don't talk about it on social media because they know the sort of posters it attracts.

DarkPsy · 18/08/2023 18:20

I used to know a guy that had some sort of mental block about swallowing ecstacy tablets. He just couldn't do it and would vomit them back up. He eventually figured out that shoving an ecstacy tablet up your bum gives you an even more intense high.

Take that, Europeans.