To be baffled by British attitudes towards suppositories?

[AnotherGirlsParadise]

I spent a few years living in Paris, where suppositories are pretty much favoured over oral medications - they work FAST, even for a sore throat, and you don't have to deal with your DC spitting out a load of Calpol and not getting any better in the process. I recently brought a haul of children's paracetamol suppositories home after a visit, and the response I've had from other parents here has been frankly quite upsetting, ranging from 'inappropriate' to 'surely that's abuse?'

So, AIBU to think people should be a little more openminded? And for the record, a suppository is easily popped in, involves no more touching than using a wipe does, and doesn't distress the child in any way. It just seems to me that because it goes through the 'other end', it's all WRONG WRONG WRONG to some.

"We give them to dd (11m) as she can't tolerate calpol when has tonsillitis and are going to stick up when go to France next."

That was a fantastic typo Madame

I don't agree with prodding around up there with a thermometer to relieve constipation. That could go very wrong. Taking temp is just poking the end in and not moving it around. Relieving constipation with a thermometer sounds dangerous.

I bet Americans don't stick medication up their children's bums.

I base this purely on one American I know who turned his DC "upside down" to force antibiotics down their throat. I never understood the physics of that, but hey.

There is very sound science behind suppositories and it is a far more efficient way to administer medicines. The stomach is designed to protect the body by breaking down anything ingested with its acid, the rectum is far more hospitable! The rectum has an excellent blood supply so can absorb the drug easily and whereas the blood that flows around the stomach area then passes through the liver which metabolises a lot of the medication out, the blood from the rectum circulates more before reaching the liver.

The British are very hung up about bums though

My DS is only a baby and has only had oral meds a few times but splutters them all over and gets upset. Boob is the only thing he accepts in his mouth so far! If he was ever (god forbid) in serious pain over something I would have absolutely no problem giving him a suppository. I don't see the problem, he wouldn't even remember it and neither would any child under 4ish. I wouldn't be keen on giving one an older kid in case they felt really uncomfortable/violated, but would if there was no other way.

I had one after my rotational forceps/episiotomy and I remember when it wore off feeling awful! They're only little, your bum gets stretched more when you just do a poo. There are much worse things to have to stick up your bum.

Thanks kiritekanawa that's interesting. DS has a hatred for the calpol syringe when he's cutting a tooth and it seems to take about 30 mins to kick in.

You don't need to take that accurate a temperature on a small child, though. I don't even use a thermometer most of the time, though we have one somewhere, because it's immediately obvious if they're running a temperature as they just feel too hot.

Honestly it just reminds me of anal sex. I know that's ridiculous and it's nothing sexual in the slightest, but it does and that's why the thought of doing it to a child is horrifying to me. If I'm weird and uptight then so be it. I am totally fine with nudity, BTW. It's the action of penetrating/putting something actually inside the anus which squicks me out.

I take temps rectally with DD. How else are you going to get an accurate temperature? She's still a baby so "Now sweetie, keep this under your tongue and hold still" isn't going to mean much to her. Moreover, under the armpits aren't accurate.

But I disagree with prodding around for constipation. It seems dangerous to have an untrained person try that.

Why are people so against suppositories? Thank goodness for morphine suppositories when your child cannot tolerate oral food and is screaming with pain. The rectum is a very useful cavity.

Reminds you of anal sex BertieBotts ? Really?

It really shouldn't.

I was given a suppository as a child, it traumatised me. I will never ever do this to a child unless I am told that there is no oral alternative by a doctor.

There are plenty of accurate thermometers out there that go in ear or use the forehead there is no need to penetrate a child in order to take temp.

If I found out my patents had used one on me as a child I would feel violated.

• How far do you have to stick a supp in?

Not far at all. Gentle pressure in the sphincter and, yes, the bum then kind of 'swallows it up' . It does not hurt and once 'gone' just gets dissolved by the body's own temperature.

• How long does it take to work?

Really much faster than oral Paracetamol: no digestion, goes straight in to the blood stream. Much like an injection but minus the needle!

All you haterz : think about the size of a normal stool you might produce. Why on earth should a teeny-tiny suppository cause a problem??

I agree with PP, the problem is not with the bum, it's all in the head

Bertiebotts I think you voiced what lots of people think.

It shouldn't remind us of anal sex - after all, putting stuff in our mouths doesn't remind us of oral sex, does it? - but i think it's because we tell our children that their bottoms are their private place to protect them from sexual abuse etc. and so anything involving their bums does have connotations of doing something sexual and wrong.

That's my mental associations anyway, probably foolishly but there they are, I'd be interested to know how the French etc teach their kids about their "private parts" if their bottoms are largely NOT private to doctors, parents when they are ill etc.?

Rectal temperature is FAR more accurately close to your core temperature than anything else - tympanic measurements come close but only if you angle the thermometer correctly and if there's no wax…

Trust me, if you only ever had your temperature taken rectally, then you'd find nothing violating about it.

Fwiw, I do agree with BertieBotts, for 'normal' healthy children we'd probably not need thermometers at all: 'feeling' for a fever is fairly accurate. There was a lovely study to show that

When DS1 was about 10 months old he had a horrendous throat bug - high temp, miserable, sore throat, cutting teeth - he was a mess. He couldn't swallow calpol, it hurt too much. I asked for suppositories, the GP prescribed them, then the pharmacist almost refused to dispense them. I was asked if I knew what they were, where they went (?!), then how I was going to put them in. All in a busy Boots, with lots of people looking at me as if I had 3 heads (DS1 was at home with his Dad, I hadn't wanted to drag him out). I did think then they were going to report me to SS - especially when I said I'd put them in at a nappy change with my little finger and a smidge of KY.

Like I did every day at work when we gave post op pain meds to children in suppository form once they were asleep so that if they vomited when they woke up, the pain relief was still in there.

I got them eventually. They were and are fab.

There are plenty of accurate thermometers out there that go in ear or use the forehead there is no need to penetrate a child in order to take temp.

If I found out my patents had used one on me as a child I would feel violated.

Yes, there are hospital grade forehead and ear thermometers, but the commercial ones aren't that great. Unless you want to shell out $100+ for a thermometer. Rectal thermometers are cheap and accurate. It's also the way our pediatrician recommends.

You'd feel violated that your parents did a medical procedure? Do you feel violated every time you get a smear? You're either being dramatic and trivializing a serious issue, or you have deep seeded issues and should probably seek therapy.

I said I know it's ridiculous! I just can't separate the two things mentally. You would never insert anything into a girl's vagina. I think this is what most British people find it akin to which is why the thought of it is so alien and offputting to us.

I don't understand why you need an accurate temperature for a child, and anyway if you did you can buy ear thermometers very cheaply now which are accurate, everyone in my NCT group was obsessed with them and would swoop down on a child who gave as much as a cough and record his temperature down to the 100th of a degree. Why? You can feel if they're hot, if you're not sure a mouth, armpit, ear or even forehead reading is accurate enough, it doesn't need to be down to point whatever of a degree.

Obviously if your child has particular medical issues it might be different but the vast majority of parents don't need to know temperature to such a degree, and I can see it would be useful for a medication refusing child but again unless there are medical issues, I didn't personally find I had to give my child that much medication for it to be such an issue.

If I was in a situation where it became the only viable option then I'd have to get over my revulsion but most parents won't be in that situation.

Does remind me of the chap that came in with sudden deafness though. After looking in with the microscope, the surgeon pulled out a half melted suppository, did a good clean out and explained to the guy what had caused the problem.

The patient then immediately rang his wife and said "you can stop looking for my hearing aid, love, I know where it is."

:)

I'm British and I find the reluctance about suppositories very weird. Surely people who are supposed to take daily aspirins would be better off taking them via this method, given how rough aspirin is on the stomach?

Ear thermometers aren't $100 in the UK, you can get one in Boots for about £30. The forehead strip ones are notoriously unreliable but what we always used as children. The oral ones (which can also be used rectally, amusingly the one I bought in Germany has the rectal instructions first, whereas the one I bought in Britain has them tucked away at the end, sort of an "well, if you must...") are very cheap, about £3ish.

I don't know that I would feel violated but a smear is totally different, you're an adult, you choose to get up on the bench, you understand what's about to happen, you give informed consent.

Yep seeing that I had them as a child (and had my temperature taken rectally too), I have to say, this is a very British reaction .
Much easier to use than trying to convince a 2yo to take ABs.

And they do they for children too, not just toddlers (I was probably about 6~7yo when I last had them)

Well Bertie a vagina wouldn't be effective for getting pain relief in painlessly and easily. It's completely different from the anus which is ideal for that, for boys and girls.

bulbasuar Thank you for the patronisation I don't need therapy. The typical sneer of posters like you that don't like to accept people have opinions.

As someone who had a deeply degrading (pretty much public) painful speculum exam only a few weeks ago. Yes I would feel violated by a smear but after this pregnancy I guarantee you my Vagina is medically off the table.

I'm a consenting adult, a child isn't.
Unless your DC has a serious illness requiring you to have absolute accurate temp then there is no need to violate their bodies to do something that could be done in a less invasive manner.

Putting stuff in our mouths doesn't remind us of oral sex because we also eat with our mouths, use them as an extra hand occasionally, use our teeth as tools, etc.

Bottoms are for pooing and maybe sex if you like that sort of thing. If you're not used to the idea of putting medicine up there it seems very strange. I'd find it strange to put something in my ear unless it was directly related to the ear (ear drops etc).