to get really annoyed when people suggest Calpol for overtired kids?

[ThatDamnDog]

Since when did paracetamol have sedative properties? And if it did, would it be right to dope them? And surely using drugs to medicate your children when they're not actually ill is totally irresponsible?

How come it's socially acceptable to say this? Thread on my FB feed just now about it, everyone's having a real hoot. Am I just having a sense of humour failure or what?

No need to use calpol. A shot of brandy in their milk works wonders.

Of course colditz, but that is very different to giving it to your child to try to get them to sleep when you are fairly sure that the only issue is that they won't sleep - and calpol doesn't work anyway as it is not a sedative so it is fruitless giving it - or giving medised purely because you can't be arsed to persevere with other methods of calming them or getting them to sleep. Plenty of children are whingey because they are overtired or don't want to go to bed or had a bad day -none of those are valid reasons to medicate them.

My DS is no angel sleeper. Indeed we are going through a very rough patch of difficult bedtimes and middle of the night wakenings which is not brilliant timing considering I am 40+3wks pg. I have done plenty of tough evenings and tough middle of the nighters and also flown very long distances with him, but I'll be damned if I'll start putting drugs into his system just because it might make my life a little bit easier, because no drug is truly benign, and I judge away at any parents (including friends) who do!

Long time ago my auntie's next door neighbour used to give her kids Benylin so she could go to bingo

MorrisZapp - people are daft and believe it has sedative properties because when they have used it when their child is in genuine pain it has helped the child sleep. They don't get that relieving the pain makes sleep easier - they think the drug knocks the child out. And therefore they give it thinking it will help the child to sleep even in the absence of fever/pain. And the child probably falls asleep because it has been told by mummy or daddy that the medicine will help so it's a psychosomatic thing, or because they were so bloody tired that they would have passed out soon anyway, or because the sudden switch in their attention away from their tantrum to being given a spoon of sweet tasting orange stuff has helped them calm down.

Apples - that may be the case for some children but I know plenty of people who have never actually flown without dosing on Medised at the gate so they don't actually know if their child needs any help. They don't wait to see if their child has ear problems, or nausea, or won't sleep before they get the drugs out. They would just rather the child is knocked out so they can watch a film in peace rather than work out ways of entertaining them and helping them sleep, or seeing if they are actually good travellers.

I hope I don't get stuck next to you and your brood on a long flight then, megaonthemoon. ;)

Last time we did the 35 hour flight thing my DD was 6 months and we did do it without drugs. I breastfed her to calm her down. This time she will be running around and I am flying ALONE with her and no longer breastfeeding so must confess having Medised up my sleeve should she fail to calm down is a great comfort. I just don't think I (or my fellow passengers) could handle it otherwise.

btw, megaonthemoon, how do you know that people are simply drugging their children so they can watch a film in peace? Maybe they have other reasons? Are you a mindreader?

So much judgypantsyness going on here with all this talk about mere convenience, wanting to watch films etc

this probably ISN'T the thread to start asking about using Medised on non-sick kids, surely?!

(i would probably use it, btw!)

I have wondered about the placebo effect, even on quite young children. Teething I find problematic - ds is a poor sleeper, and I wouldn't ordinarily medicate him, but if he's jabbing at his mouth and yanking his ear and crying, and bonjela isn't working, I'll give him Calpol, and very often it helps, very quickly. But I can't be sure he's teething (he's 11 mo), and whether all the poking and yanking are signs of tiredness, so I do wonder if he remembers the medicine making him feel better, or if the taste distracts him. It can be quite a tough call.

I thought Medised was banned for under 6's now cos it can cause breathing difficulty in young kids? I certainly eouldn't be using it for a bit of peace and quiet on a plane - the other passengers would just have to grin and bear it I'm afraid!
Calpol has no sedative effect whatsoever but I have also come across a lot of people who think it does and use it for that reason.

chaya - because before i had DS, a friend told me this is what they did and why they did it! And this was relayed to me as if everyone did it because they quoted lot of friends who had which was why they found out about it. I was a bit then but as I didn't have children at the time I didn't comment.

I don't apologise for being a judgypants about this. This is not BLW vs puree, or real nappies vs dispies, which are valid parenting choices albeit with differing viewpoints and pros and cons. This is about using a pharmaceutical product, which always has the risk of side effects, however small, for the convenience of the parents rather than the wellbeing of the child.

I know there are grey areas where you aren't sure if your child is in pain and so you have to decide whether to give a pain reliever or not without being totally sure if it is the right thing, but that is very different to using a drug because you want a slightly easier life which was the OP's original point.

chaya - my DS is an angel on long flights, honest :)

I think there is a place for a dose every now and again if a child has been awake, yelling for no apparant reason for a while - surely they must have a headache after all that crying even if they didn't before ...

Relying on it every night is not good though.

Chaya I'm afraid I'm afraid bumder is right about medised being for children over 6 now. It initially had the age increasd to 2 years because studies implicated it in cot death.

If your dc is suffering from pressure in their ears while flying I would give calpol as this is painful. I would also recommend saline nasal drops to minimise any blockage in the nasal are which would make the pressure changes more uncomfortable.

I don't use Medised so I can watch a film or for the convenience of other passengers. If you have a child who vomits when they are over-tired, it can avoid that happening when flying long-haul. And if you've used Medised at home with no probs, why hesitate to use it to make the journey more pleasant for the child?

The fact that it makes my life easier is a ridiculous argument against using it - I use it for the benefit of my child, to avoid her being so overtired she throws up then spends the rest of the flight slowing dehydrating. And yes, I concede, I prefer it that way too.

If Calpol works, the child was in pain. So what's the problem?

Panzee, in my situation parents were advising the mother, who was complaining that her 6 year old was hyper and over-tired, to give Calpol. My general experience of 6 year olds is that they can usually articulate whether they are unwell or in pain. My 3 year old manages this. So I don't believe there was any justification or sense in giving paracetamol in this case. But a number of parents felt that it was an acceptable, in fact an advisable course of action.

YANBU - it's bad form to drug the kids unless they're ill.

YANBU. Calpol is nothing more than paracetamol in a sugar susension. It has no sedative in it, and will not act as a sedative for one moment. Unless the child has pain or fever and the Calpol cures said pain or fever, (thus aiding sleep) sleep is no more likely to be induced than if you fed them Fray Bentos pies before bedtime.

Probably depends on the child, but I find 7mo DS often has very disturbed sleep when he is teething, which seems to be at least 75% of the time! (he has 8 teeth so far poor thing) My HV said that if I had toothache, I would find it hard to stay asleep too, which is very true. Babies can't tell us if they are in pain, and while it is easy to tell when they are in extreme pain, constant mildish teething pain or a headache can't be nice :( and is easy to miss.

Sometimes if DS is grumpy I try a dose of Nurofen or Calpol and he obviously feels much better afterwards, and if tired will have a long sleep, but I wouldn't know beforehand that it would work as he isn't screaming in pain.

Obviously I wouldn't give the maximum daily amounts of nurofen+calpol long term, but it really upsets me when other mothers boast that their 10mo has never had Calpol, when the poor child has obviously (to me at least) been in pain. It's bloody paracetamol for god's sake, not crack cocaine!

arses - if you popped a Panadol before bed when in pain, then isn't that because it relieves the pain and therefore you're able to sleep.
Maybe that's what you were meaning.

Isn't there a study that shows how paracetamol has a cumulative effect on the liver over time?
So to use it as a sleep aid is a bit dodge.

BTW - I give pain relief to my DC when it's required as that's what it's for.

oh dear... I have given my 23 month old DS calpol twice today - he felt a bit hot and was screaming for no 'good' reason and it's not usual for him to have tantrums like that...

Sorry morag, yes, quite what I meant!