Any pharmacists around? 13yr old took 800mg ibruprofen

[FoxRedPuppy]

By accident- the 400mg had been put in the wrong box. She took two and then realised.

She is autistic so is now panicking about taking too much, but she also can’t face A&E.

I appreciate it is above the dose, but wonder what I need to do. I will force her to A&E if I have to, but would rather not as it will likely cause an autistic meltdown.

Would it be ok to keep an eye on her and see how she goes?

I once took an overdose of ibuprofen at age 19 and I took about 20 400mg tablets. I had to drink charcoal in A&E but the doctor told me that it was one of the safer drugs to have chosen to take as it doesn't have massive side effects like overdosing on paracetamol.

If it were me I'd try and get her to eat somerhing so that her stomach has some protection from ulcers forming and just keep an eye on her. If you're not sure though give 111 a call to be on the safe side.

If you do end up going to A&E, can you sit in the kids waiting area? We have with my 13yo before where it is less busy and quieter. He tolerates little kids better than adults

Hope your DD is ok

Ibuprofen is very forgiving so chances are good she'll be totally fine. The vast majority of OTC painkillers are dosed very carefully so taking double the amount is safe. They know that there are plenty of people who double dose on purpose because they are simply too stupid or impatient. If it says 400mg on the packaging, many will take two pills hoping it will work faster.

Paracetamol is the only painkiller that has a tight margin of error. Even so, a true harmful overdose is very unlikely especially if it was taken by accident.

Not a pharmacist, just had ibuprofen prescribed many times.

12 counts as an adult as long as weight is high enough. 1200mg is the max otc dose, but the prescription max is 3 times as high.

we are talking about 800mg. You can call 111, but personally I would feed her some bread to protect her stomach from upset and just keep an eye on her.

I was told the exact same thing

I did that for the full day's doses when I had backache for a whole 2 days before I realised. I thought it was making me stupidly sleepy.
Phoned a friend who was a GP and they said that would be no problem and not to worry.
If it had been paracetamol then she would have advised to go to A&E.

The packets from our local pharmacy are the same except the larger dose has 800 or 400 written in small black letters underneath the red large "Ibroprofen". I hadn't even realised I'd bought the stronger ones.
I pointed this out to the pharmacy when I'd recovered and they agreed to feed it back to the manufacturer.

After I had wisdom teeth out under general I was given strong dose ibuprofen, but didn't realise, and took way too much. I called 111 who told me to drink lots of milk and go to hospital if I felt unwell. I was fine.