To have been giving DS the wrong amounts of Calpol for months and think the amounts should be labeled better?

[SchroSawMargeryDaw]

Had to have DS up at Yorkhill the other night as he was ill. While trying to get his temperature down in a panic, I was told he should be getting 8.2ml for his weight and not 5ml.

I don't think it even has a time where it says 8ml on the box!

So, AIBU to think that the boxes should be labelled correctly with amounts for weight? I've been complaining for ages that the stuff doesn't work well at all when actually I just haven't been giving him enough of it.

yes HCPs can dose by weight but the otc products have to allow for people who do not/cannot read the instructions to avoid overdoses. If symptoms don't respond to the otc doses then child probably needs to be seen by HCP anyway.

So basically they think people in the UK can't be trusted to administer medication to their children correctly?

When I say 'they' I don't mean HCPs I mean whoever decides on med labelling etc

Soontobe, that calculator is for the infant suspension. If your son is 11, he'd be using the 6+ which is double the strength so you'd need half the dose i.e 17ml.

but I'm not sure that is any different to Europe. However there is more of a culture of going to paed/gp when unwell so you get specific advice each time. 2.5/5/10ml fits the traditional size of spoon. iirc only nurofen and medised came with syringe.

clay, that sounds better! he still only got 10mls though as that's what it said on the box. I also mistakingly thought that he couldn't take actual paracetemol tablets until he was 12, but I've just checked the box and you can use them for over 6's. So no more Calpol buying for me :). 12 year old No1 son "graduated" to tablets last year - though he has only taken them once and I forgot to tell him not to chew them

Soontobe, that calculator is for the infant suspension. If your son is 11, he'd be using the 6+ which is double the strength so you'd need half the dose i.e 17ml

Yes
Its basically 15mg per kg of weight so 9 stone is 57kg

then divide by the strength ie 120gm per 5 mil
then times by 5 for the 5ml
so
57 x15/120 x5 = 35

120g 0-6 strength would be a dose of 35
250g 6+ strength 17.1
500g strength tablets would be 855 g = 1.7 tablets

Thanks bruffin - he'll probably be 6 foot by the next time he needs it :)

I'll be going with the tablets I think - less than 5 doses in a bottle of Calpol for ££££ or 20 odd pence for 24 paracetemol caplets. No brainer!

LIZS Other European countries seem to manage giving their children weight adjusted doses fine though, why are we so different, is there any point giving them medicine in the first place if it's not much more than half of what they should be getting?

And no, Calpol comes with a syringe now as well, I bloody love the new syringes, so much easier and no waste!

To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if the average Briton's maths was dodgier than the average French person's. As it is, the British instructions are very clear to understand, with the side-effect of possible over-dosing.

Well, you can see the confusion just based on this thread, and, as we are all computer literate, we probably aren't the least capable parents in the country. I definitely think it is far safer all round to keep it simple.

*the side-effect of possible under dosing!

I don't think it's that much safer tbh.

The only reason I found this out is because I was at the childrens hospital, we had no money to get there and only luckily managed to get a lift. We wouldn't have called an ambulance as we didn't realise it was as bad as it was, if we couldn't get the lift I would just have kept him stripped and kept trying with the calpol, by the time he got the correct dose his temperature was at 40.3 and his heart rate was floating above 210 and setting the machines off.

Once he got the correct dose it was brought down enough fairly quickly, that just wasn't happening at home.

Surely there are risks to under dosing along with risks to overdosing?

I'm sure there are ways to do this without treating everyone like an idiot.

Other EU countries use kg consistently. We don't.

There would be regular overdosing if instructions were in kg as some people have a lb figure in their head. Even listing both adds a step of complication so potential confusion.

I have no idea what my girls weigh. I do not own scales. I am not going to weigh them while ill to find out the exact dosage they need. 5ml usually does what I need it to. I think putting weight v dosage on kids medicine would cause more cases of overdose, tbh.

Actually just looking at our bottles (Australia), they have age & weight on them. 8.2ml is indicated for 25-28kg (8-9yrs)

So the potential for parents to buy it here say, while on holiday & not read the dose & give their child a dose based on what they do at home is very great!

So say for example, your ds is 18mths & 13k. You give him 8.2ml at home. But yo come here for a holiday, he needs something for pain & you buy our equivalent. You don't check dosage & give him 8.2ml. You have just given him a dose for a 8-9yr old. Where as his correct dose here (by K) would be 4ml. At least if you gave him 5ml, you would only have given him slightly too much.

The concentration levels were always different in Australia when I was there, as with the Panadol brand you only gave a tiny amount compared to the UK Calpol.

Anyone that gave a foreign brand medicine and didn't check the dosage levels would REALLY be risking their child's safety!

Different I would check the strength on the bottle, just as I would check if I was using another brand.

And I have never been told DS' weight in lbs, it's always in kg. I thought that was the norm here.

And YY to suppositories so missing all the sweeteners and crap in the suspension.

SchroSawMargeryDaw Yes, you would...but would everybody?

That's great that you would have no difficulty calculating the right dose, with no chance of error. Manufacturers aren't just selling to people like you though. They have to be realistic about chances of error and make things so simple that people whose faculties are blunted by fear, sleep-deprivation or panic and who have never used the medication before can still get it right easily, every time.

If I asked you your weight and height you'd answer in kg and cms? You must be aware that many people would answer in stones and pounds, and feet and inches though?

It's an age thing. I was born in the 'decimal age' but have always talked about weight, of people and for cooking, in imperial measures. I can translate but, every time dd has been weighed, both values have been entered in her 'red book' and, because I look a little blank or am clearly translating, I've always been told the weight in lbs too. So yes, officially we're all metric (oh, except pints and miles) but there are still people young enough to have babies who carry a lb weight in their head and would have to think about, or look up or calculate, a kg weight.

The obvious risk is that, in a difficult moment, they dose for the figure in their head, so 2.2 x the actual dose. You may think them terribly silly but that wouldn't stop it happening.

Well everybody should check the bottle of course. It's medication, not caramel. Do people not realise that? Why are the French allowed to dose properly and not the Brits? And as for weight, everyone under 45 learned the metric system, and with children's weight it would be easy to provide a column for lbs and oz. Recipe books manage it. The difference due to approximation would be minimal.

Why are the French allowed to dose properly and not the Brits?

Because the French are obsessed with weight and have their children weighed every week?

That's absolutely not true. Well, the children don't get weighed every week, the adults are quite obsessive about their weight. I ended up buying scales during my pregnancy because everyone was when I kept saying I didn't know how much weight I had put on. And I was not a little at being so regularly asked by pretty much everyone.

My LO since we left hospital has been weighed three times, and one of those times was because she was ill. Next weigh in will be at just under seven months.

In fact I was very surprised on my post natal threads at how often everyone's babies were being weighed in the UK. I still manage to dose my baby's paracetamol correctly, it's not like that put on a kilo every few days.