Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

...to think I can be trusted with suppositories?

99 replies

solveproblem · 26/07/2013 22:53

Why, why, WHY can't I buy paracetamol suppositories for children?

DS2 is asleep with a very high temperature that needs to be brought down, I have now had to try to wake him up and give him oral paracetamol. He point blank refused as he is poorly and tired. It would have been so much easier with suppositories and I wouldn't have to worry about him not taking his medicine.

Does anyone know what the reason is behind these not being on sale in the UK?

OP posts:
Flojobunny · 26/07/2013 23:55

You have to be joking right? Surely this can't be serious. You can't seriously be suggesting sticking things in your child's bottom?
Wrong on so many levels.

expatinscotland · 26/07/2013 23:56

No, she's not joking. Why is it wrong?

QuintessentiallyOhDear · 26/07/2013 23:58

Flojo, the suppositories are small. They seriously wont feel it. You pop it up very gently, and clench their cheeks shut for a moment so it wont pop back out. It honestly is the best and kindest way to get medicine into a sick child. Especially if they have a tummy bug. Or if they are asleep.

OpenMindedSceptic · 26/07/2013 23:59

You can buy them, they are called Alvedon, very expensive though (around £20). I once got them on prescription when DS had severe vomiting bug. Don't understand why they are so expensive.

AnnabelleLee · 27/07/2013 00:00

I rest my case. Hmm

It's completely normal everywhere else. It's absorbed faster and better, its not at all uncomfortable (they generally don't even notice you doing it). Why on earth wouldn't you?

The fact that you think there is something odd about it says something about you, not the millions of people who use them!

QuintessentiallyOhDear · 27/07/2013 00:00

They are not that expensive in Norway. £5 for a blister pack of 20

AudrinaAdare · 27/07/2013 00:02

It isn't sticking things up there, it's administering dissolvable medication which is easily absorbed and takes seconds compared to holding a child down and having them gag and spit oral medication and becoming increasingly distressed. I do wonder at the way some people's minds work sometimes...

owlini · 27/07/2013 00:07

I asked my GP to prescribe them for DD as there was no way she would take calpol when she was small and also because I'm another strange forrin person who thinks its not at all weird to give your child suppositories. She did prescribe them without a grumble.
They are about £20 OTC over here and about 2? in Germany. Hmm So now I just stock up or get my mum to send some over.

AnnabelleLee · 27/07/2013 00:09

We also stick thermometers up there too!
Grin

AudrinaAdare · 27/07/2013 00:09

Quint "He said "Thanks to you, I will now have the imagine of Marilyn Monroe, taking suppositories etched on my mind for ever"

Grin

But seriously, so what?

Then again, there is the theory that they played a part in her "overdose"

QuintessentiallyOhDear · 27/07/2013 00:11

Yes, the thermometers! Grin Nothing like measuring the core temperature in the bottom. I would even do it on myself..... (sorry, tmi)

QuintessentiallyOhDear · 27/07/2013 00:12

I think it was more the case of imagining M M sticking stuff up her bum that got him blushing. Grin

expatinscotland · 27/07/2013 00:12

The man's a doctor and he's blushy over suppositories? Honestly, WTF?

QuintessentiallyOhDear · 27/07/2013 00:14

He was very young and fresh-faced.

He did however keep a straight face when he had to examine a lump in my breast, so he is ok.

sallysparrow157 · 27/07/2013 00:17

Remember to put them in blunt end first! You'd be amazed how many people who give them routinely don't know that, they go in blunt end first and the pointy bit encourages the anus to clench around em and keep them in! They work so much quicker than needs taken by mouth, they are tiny and don't hurt going in at all, it is insane that they cost so much. Everyone should go to their gp and demand a prescription just in case, if we cause a demand they will start selling them at a sensible price

inneedofrain · 27/07/2013 00:18

Very common here and very cheap!

If anyone is in real need I would be happy to post some!

Very good way to get medicine into a sick person, only the British would have a problem with it!

timidviper · 27/07/2013 00:18

The bum is a great way to give medicines, lots of blood supply to absorb it and no stomach acid/first pass through the liver to break it down. The British thing about bottoms does us a disservice really.

softlysoftly · 27/07/2013 00:22

Well that's useful to know! When in hospital with dd2 they couldn't get her temp down and she wouldn't drink due to distress (8 months) as they kept holding her down and forcing paracetamol down her throat something I've then had to do at home.

They could have just given her suppositories?

But bottoms are too embarrassing. Great Hmm

AnnabelleLee · 27/07/2013 00:30

I can't imagine why they wouldn't use it in a hospital, especially for an infant? Confused I didn't give mine oral paracetamol until they were 2+.

I hope none of the eww, bums people have a child with epilepsy, I have to keep diazepam suppositories on hand in case of prolonged seizures..you want to see the size of them! And the applicator that goes with it....

AuntPepita · 27/07/2013 00:39

Gp prescribed them on request for DD. they are fab. One of the many things I learned about on MN.

Why we can't have antibiotics in suppository form idk, would save so much hassle.

LaChaiseVerte · 27/07/2013 00:43

My gp happily prescribed them for me with dd1 when she was distressed with a perforated ear drum and refused oral meds.

I went back and asked a locum for some for dd2 and got told off and lectured on how unpleasant it would be for her and why would i want to do that to a baby etc. I ended up ringing the hv to ask of I'd been that awful !

Normal gp now lets us have them on repeat if required.

kreecherlivesupstairs · 27/07/2013 00:48

Fantastic things.
DD was another oral medicine refuser.
One up the bum, no harm done.

AnnabelleLee · 27/07/2013 00:51

You can get some anti-b's in suppository form, but they aren't widely available. Some are more common than others, like Flagyl suppositories.

Then of course there are vaginal suppositories, you can get anti-b's in that form.....

Iatemyskinnyperson · 27/07/2013 00:52

Very common here in Ireland - paralink for paracetamol and nuerofen for ibuprofen. Miracle stuff for v sick kiddos. I was even prescribed difene suppositories when I left the hosp after giving birth (big episiotomy)

AudrinaAdare · 27/07/2013 00:53

Blunt end first? Well I didn't know that. Anusol (charming name) has saved me from a world of pain on several occasions.

Swipe left for the next trending thread