To not medicate my ds's cold.

[APixieInMyTea]

He's 19months and has a stinking cold. Struggling to eat because of his bunged up nose.

I've put some olbas oil on a reusable wipe and stuck it in his pillow case ready for his nap in a minute and just squirted some saline spray up his nose and sucked out a mountain of snot.

Someone has told me I'm being cruel for not giving him calpol. He hasn't got a temp or in pain so why do I need to give calpol?

I did give calpol once and found it just hid the symptoms rather than getting rid of them and they soon came back.

So AIBU to not give him calpol? Do you for a cold?

I very rarely ever give dd any kind of medicine. I don't medicate for a temp on its own either. It's her body doing its job.

I try to operate a policy of looking at the child, not the thermometer. If she is in pain or uncomfortable or struggling then of course I would give some calpol or nurofen as appropriate but if she is well, happy and not in any discomfort, I don't give anything.

Hiding the symptoms is kind of the point of analgesics.

totally think that children are over medicated in general and that indiscriminate calpol usage is heinous.

a slight fever is the body doing it's job. i would only give calpol if a temperature was bad enough that convulsions were a possibility...

luckily ds hates medicine and the taste of it (has had it so rarely in his life) so won't have it unless forced!

ooo. x posts. glad to see showofhands and panzine in agreement!

We've got a brilliant pharmacist up the road, and whenever we're not certain we go and ask him. Have generally found him to be more helpful than our GP and more knowledgable as well. (My BIL is a GP and his wife is a pharmacist and he always bows to her knowledge when it comes to medicating kids for common ailments.)

Well using it for anything other than high temps Molly.
article about research

and me sophable.

yy fever exists to fight infection and as such is a very effective medicine in its self. Really fever should only be treated if it's dangerously high / child is listless etc. Anything under 38.5 isn't fever at all, it's just a raised temperature.

Well, he's gone down for his nap fine without calpol so he must feel ok in himself. He usually sleeps for about 2hrs so we'll see if he still does or if he wakes up feeling crappy.

I have calpol in the house so I'm not totally against giving it but really do try not too if there's other ways of dealing with the cold/illness first.

How do you know the child isn't in pain? 'Struggling to eat' probably means he's got a painful throat. You can't cure a cold but if a spoon of liquid paracetamol calms down the symptoms, isn't that worth doing?

So you wouldn't medicate for pain Po?

chil1234 I think it was more to do with the fact that his nose was so bunged up he couldn't breath through it whilst eating.

I cleared it though and he's gone for a nap so I'll just keep an eye on him.

Excess congestion leads quickly to headaches, ear aches even if he hasn't got a sore throat - and he's too small to tell you any of those things. I really don't understand your reluctance to use a very simple & safe age-appropriate preparation. If you were medicating him all day every day there might be an issue - not an occasional dose for a specific purpose.

for a cold i run a warm bath, also fill the sink up with boiling water with a few drops of olbas oil so you have a lot of steam.

use calpol if he's waking a lot with the cold to get him to have a bit of uninterrupted sleep, or has a temperature/pain etc

top of the mummy medication list is this though:

cup or bottle of warmed up milk
blanket
favourite cuddly toy
in the night garden

works a charm every time

You have to weigh up short term comfort with long term risks. If a child was in a lot of pain I would probably use baby nurofen.

I agree with you OP - I don't like using medication unless necessary. As you say your DS has neither a temp nor any pain, what precisely would giving him some Calpol accomplish? IMVHO some people overuse over-the-counter medications "because they're not really that strong, or they'd have to be prescribed".

Interesting link above. Final paragraph does suggest that Calpol is fine for use with high temp and/or excessive pain though. We're probably guilty of giving it too readily in the past and are a little more circumspect these days. We usually go for baby ibuprofen for teething and will only use the two in conjunction when our pharmacist or GP agrees that its the best course of action.

How do you know he's not in pain, just out of interest?

If his only symptoms are a blocked up nose I wouldn't call it a 'stinking cold'
Usually if it's a bad cold children are pretty grumpy with it.

If he is not in pain and doesn't have a high temperature then YANBU. olbas oil sounds like the perfect plan. I agree with the people who say that children are often over medicated. Mind you I can't understand the parents who don't have anything on standby just in case either.

Personally when I have a cold I take paracetamol as it takes away that generally feeling crap feeling that comes with it. My Dr told me it blocks interferons produced by the virus that gives you this crap feeling.. So yes, paracetamol (calpol) could make him feel a lot better, and won't do him any harm whatsoever, so I don't see why you don't give it to him if he's feeling unwell.

Btw, paracetamol is absolutely the best thing to use with a viral illness. Ibuprofen is more likely to cause GI side effects than paracetamol is to produce any.

I use baby nurofen very rarely, being aware of GI side effects. I don't think anyone has done any peer reveiwed research comparing the likelihood of reactions [long term] between nurofen and paracetamol. It has long been known that there are no short term side effects with paracetamol. However the long term asthma link is not something to be taken lightly.