to think paracetamol won't turn my daughter into a crack addict at 16?

[BerylOfLaughs]

My 5yo daughter has calpol whenever she cries and tells me she is in pain - not from a fall, but from things like leg pain which she gets from time to time. I also gave some to her last week when she had some mosquito bites which were massive (golf ball diameter) and she woke up in the night in pain/itchiness with them.
Basically, I have no problem with giving her Calpol as and when she says she needs it, but my husband thinks I should hold back and only give it to her if she's in a fair bit of pain or else she won't develop a tolerance for pain and will become dependent on drugs and will be on crack at 16.

Sounds like bollocks to me.

It's not like she is monitoring her own intake of it - you are letting her have some when she is clearly in pain.

Having said that, if she is repeatedly asking for it for 'growing pains' or anything non-specific, I would say no. As a child I LOVED the sugary taste of calpol and loved having it but would rarely get it.

I'm also fast and loose with the analgesia with my two, however, I do dilute it with water if I think I can get away with it! I am of the opinion that if something hurts, I'll try to solve it. I know some parents think calpol is the devil's juice but to my mind leaving a child knowingly in pain is a bit, well, weird tbh.

btw, the growing pains may be vitamin d deficiency. My dd1 gets them regularly but has had them less since starting kids vitamins.

She won't develop a dependance on it.

But personally I wouldn't encourage the use, and tend to keep it for when I would use it (which maywell be different to when you would use it as an adult - we are all different). I only tend to use pain killers/paracetamol/ibuprofen for headache, fever and sustained musculao-skeletal pain, and that is how I would use it in my children - but like I say that is my own personal opinion.

Paracetamol isn't particularly friendly on teh liver and I have been taught (university pharmacology module) that the liver has a lifetime limit for paracetamol dose - but I haven't done any independent research to see if that is true.

In the circumstances you describe I probably wouldn't have used painkillers. I would have used an anti-histamie for the bite (piriton or bite cream) to treat the cause rather than the effect.

I offer alternatives first eg. rubbing my dd's leg or putting a cold flannel onto the mosquito bite or arnica cream.

Get a good placebo in your cupboard for those times when your child doesn't have a temperature or an injury but needs a bit of TLC for non-specific misery. A bottle of something syrupy, or a flavoured water, might help.

But your husband is being a bit wanky.

I try not to use it too much because of the liver, as mentioned above.

Before Calpol there was "Let me kiss it better" and a huge plaster .

Your DH may be on to something - kids need to learn that most pain gets better by itself and that you can distract yourself from it.

But as 5 she is very little and I am not recommending she "tough it out" if she is genuinely in pain and discomfort. That's what Calpol is definitely for.

i try not to use calpol if i can help it

Interesting about the liver, I didn't know about the lifetime intake. I do give it for leg pains which she has on and off which I thought to be growing pains but have since been told they don't exist. Interesting about the vitD deficiency too, she does take a multivitamin when we remember.
Husband doesn't agree with a placebo either as it encourages taking 'something' for pain which he translates into turning to drugs when she is a sullen teenager.

olderandwider MIL tells me there was a bit of whisky rubbed on the gums of teething children before calpol!

I've agreed to wait 10 mins before giving calpol for a while as an experiment.

It depends how often that she is having it. The more paracetamol you take, the less it works. Studies do show that people who tend to take pain relief for minor ailments develop a smaller pain threashold. Most of the adult cases of cirrhosis of the liver is through taking paracetamol over a long period of time. You do need to start to give her the idea that medicine isn't the answer for every ailment.

BerylOflaughs I was that baby! Whisky on the gums. And no, I am not an alcoholic now .

Good to know olderandwider!

The other thing that i learnt to be cautious of (as an aside) is that children very quickly learn that they have to give you a "valid" reason for needing pain relief, and that they can be very cunning.

For example DD3 (now 5) has been known to tell me she is hot (fever) and needs medicine. I take her temp, which is normal so she tells me thermometer isn't working...

When I first moved DTDs to adult tablets in place of syrup it was demmed "exciting" and they would often use the excuse that they "had a headache" to get me to give them tablets. I didn't always give in - I think you can tell when the lies are commong if you know your own children, and now the novelty has worn off they rarely have a headache.

Piriton would be more suitable for mosquito bites imo.

Not sure I would give Calpol for growing pains in a 5 year old, they are more associated with teens iirc.

I only give Calpol when ds is very obviously under the weather and would be suspicious of a child asking for medicine tbh.

Before there was Calpol there was Disprin....

I think trying to delay it for 10 minutes is fair enough - I assume you don't take paracetamol every time you feel a tiny twinge yourself? So I would try something else first, and only go with the pills if that doesn't fix it. Piriton or antihistamine cream for bites, a rub or cold/hot flannel for aches, just a cuddle in may cases.

Give her it when you think she needs it, not when she asks for it at 5 - she may be asking you to make it better rather than having seriously assessed her condition and decided that pain relief is requred!

When I was young, my mum had a very nasty tasting version of calpol (not sure what it was, might have been dissolved paracetamol, yuck!). Anyway, my Dsis and I were nearly dead from pain before we would ask for it!

Birdsgottafly - surely most adult cases of cirrhosis of the liver are from alcohol, not from taking paracetamol?

Your way overreacting OP

Am going to look into getting some disprin/less sugary version of calpol.

Sounds like you give Calpol on a willy nilly, leg pains are part of growing up.

You will turn her into a pain killer addict if you continue on the same path, and the doseage they end up taking is equivalent to more than heroin for the same addiction.

Everything everything said :)

Made me choke on my tea the idea that most cirrhosis cases are due to normal paracetamol use. Not likely. It's a wonderful drug with very very few SE at normal doses.