Nursery refusing to give paracetamol to children unless supplied by parents , is it normal?

[Lotus2026]

Hi, is there anyone happy to share your experience of dealing with nursery?

My child's nursery has been very inflexible all the time, with rules don't even make sense...

Our child was teething very badly, didn't sleep much all night. When we dropped him at nursery following day, we asked them to give some paracetamol for pain relief when needed, they refused us and requested that we need to supply it, their paracetamol on site is for emergency only. It was impossible to get away from our jobs on the same day to deliver paracetamol to them. We can see he was in a lot of pain in the evening.

Is this situation normal? Did anyone has similar experience?

All medication has to be supplied by parents, plasters/bandages are supplied by nursery. If nuseries and schools have to supply medication where will it end? Antihistamines during hayfever season? Then all the different types of hayfever medication as some antihistamines wouldnt work for some?. Then there is the issue of allergies to paracetamol etc.

Ours would only give it if prescribed. Otherwise if a child needed it they were expected to be kept off nursery.

School is the same.

yes completely normal, I'm surprised you're so surprised. Ours will administer Calpol if you supply it, but only for teething. If he was in that much pain they should have called you to pick him up, surely it would have been quicker to just run and buy some calpol and drop it there, rather than pick him up.

Yes it’s normal. Mine went to a workplace nursery that supplied everything, we just had to make sure they had spare clothes. We had to attend nursery with our own calpol to administer it.

Generally parents in the office would borrow calpol from each other, and our coffee shop sold it with alongside grownup paracetamol by the time I left.

Years ago, the nursery I now use had a policy where a parent had to come to nursery to give their child medication.

So you just left the poor baby in pain all day rather than spend £3

The EYFS statutory framework says this on medicines:

3.60 Providers must have and implement a policy, and procedures, for administering medicines to children. It must include systems for obtaining information about a child’s needs for medicines, and for keeping this information up to date. Staff must have training if the administration of medicine requires medical or technical knowledge. Prescription medicines must not be administered unless they have been prescribed for a child by a doctor, dentist, nurse, or pharmacist (medicines containing aspirin should only be given if prescribed by a doctor).

3.61 Medicine (both prescription and non-prescription) must only be administered to a child where written permission for that particular medicine has been obtained from the child’s parent and/or carer. Providers must keep a written record each time a medicine is administered to a child and inform the child’s parents and/or carers on the same day the medicine has been taken, or as soon as reasonably practicable.

Beyond that, nurseries are private business and can come up with their own policies and procedures.

Where I am (not UK) we used to supply the ibuprofen/paracetamol for nursery (4 years ago). Now we have to measure out the exact dose in a syringe and that´s what´s she´s reminded to take. (She is in primary now). I suppose it is like this all over. No one wants liability.

Agree.

If my child needed paracetamol I would expect to have to provide it.

Yes this is normal. School will administer eg antibiotics if they are prescribed but we must drop them off and pick them up every day. Neither nursery my children attended would administer Calpol for teething. One would give Calpol if the child spiked a fever and then call you to pick them up, one would just call. Neither would accept the child if they had been given Calpol in the morning.

But surely if they are happy to administer your calpol they are happy to accept the liability for doing it, just not the cost of supplying it?

Completely normal

That's interesting - our nursery will give calpol if we supply it and they will accept children who have had calpol. They won't supply it though.

I assume it’s a cost issue. If you know they’re going to need calpol in the day, the onus on you is to provide it, unless your contract states that they’ll fund medication needed while in their care.

They do ‘but for emergency use only’ - what ‘emergency’ would paracetamol help with?

Normal yes and this is in relation to my DS’s who are 21 and 18.

Yes this has been the case forever. With signed paperwork. An agency I babysit also have the same rule. Medication can vary so much in strength and interact with other ingredients or jabs allergens in like milk. It's for your child's health and safety. Also paracetamol isn't likely the best treatment for teething.

Of course it’s normal.

If you knew in advance your child would possibly be needing medication why didn’t you provide any?

Medication is no joke and they can’t be giving out random medication to children without knowing if they’ve had previous reactions etc.

It is up to the parent to pick and provide the medication.

A very high temp when parent is on the way to collect....

An injury that is causing child pain, whilst parent is on the way to collect....

Exactly! Thanks.

Thank you! It sounds like the whole process of administrating Calpol varies, depends on the nursery's rules.

The ones listed in the post above this one?
To be honest it just sounds like you want them to pay for your child’s pain relief medication. If you knew she’d need paracetamol today, why didn’t you take it with you?

Well you presumably have him a dose at home, so you pick up the bottle and take it with you. Why would you leave him and then assume they'll do it for you

You really can't imagine any scenario where a kid who didn't need calpol all day might suddenly need it? Like a kid getting ill / temp etc? A child who isn't teething but suddenly starts in pain with their teeth?