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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think sedating kids for a quiet life is not on?!

174 replies

glitterazi · 19/12/2016 01:08

Really don't want to link to this but going to have to for context as too hard to explain otherwise.
On what planet is it reasonable to drug your kids for a plane ride for a quiet life?
Read the blog post and then the comments.
Seems there are actually people out there that would do this, and not just the blogger. Which is kind of depressing.
I just don't get why you'd drug your kid to sleep when there was no medical reason to and you say yourself it's "because people may look at you with stares" - (look in the comments themselves for that beaut)
AIBU?)

www.jetlagandmayhem.com/destinations/planning-tips/sedating-kids-on-the-plane-with-phenergan/

OP posts:
dingdongthewitchishere · 19/12/2016 09:42

A child could react to any medication not just this and you are advised to try it at home first

so why are you talking about using it in a long haul flight to start with? Confused Do you mean you drug your kids a week or 2 before a holiday too, to check how they will react?

words fail me.

pictish · 19/12/2016 09:42

"Maybe consider a holiday your kids will enjoy, including the trip, as opposed to a holiday you can show off to your friends with."

I'm not allowed to say what you deserve to hear on here. But I am thinking it.
Your username is very apt.

YelloDraw · 19/12/2016 09:42

If adults want to knock themselves out on the plane they can do. Take a dose of night nurse.

identityhidden · 19/12/2016 09:43

Mamma I have thought that for a long time, but didn't want to say on here, didn't think it would go down well.

Cherryskypie · 19/12/2016 09:44

'Maybe consider a holiday your kids will enjoy'

Like, Disneyland?

dingdongthewitchishere · 19/12/2016 09:45

Aeroflotgirl and you will drug her to make your life easier, and pat yourself on the back because you are that amazing parent. Well done you. Let us know how it goes when they want to go to the Australian Gold Coast. Grin

What's the next step? drugging them for an easy trip to the supermarket, a full night sleep? You might as well. You are amazing, you truly are.

Aeroflotgirl · 19/12/2016 09:45

Funny that, but we don't don't fly that often, so Disneyworld will be a trip of a lifetime.

Aeroflotgirl · 19/12/2016 09:47

Do rein it in dingdong you are sounding quite weird, mabey you need drugging. You are a perfect parent then, give yourself a big pat on the back too!

No a one off, as I said, and no we will not be going anywhere as far as Australia. You haven't got a clue of the life we have and the daily challenges we face as a family, you trying to be funny really is quite offensive. Unless you have walked in our shoes, you do not have a clue.

Aeroflotgirl · 19/12/2016 09:48

If its under the guidance of a qualified Dr i have no qualms in that thank you.

Cherryskypie · 19/12/2016 09:49

Ignore the goady fucker.

museumum · 19/12/2016 09:51

It is recommended for severe travel sickness. My ds (3) pukes copiously and continuously on coach journeys which we now avoid. We haven't tired taking him on a ferry but if it was to make him as sick as a coach does tgen I'd try it for the journey home again.
I'd also use it if it stopped sickness on a flight. No toddler enjoys throwing up, and it's awful for everyone sitting around about.

JerryFerry · 19/12/2016 09:52

My parents gave us phenergan every night!

PosiePaRumPaPaPumParker · 19/12/2016 09:53

I had a "friend" who did this long after the long haul flight....

She also barricaded her kids doors with thick blankets so she couldn't hear them cry...

PosiePaRumPaPaPumParker · 19/12/2016 09:53

I have done long haul with four children ALONE, the oldest was 6. We managed drug free.

smEGGnogg · 19/12/2016 09:56

I had this recommended to me by a gp. My daughter, who is now 8, was 2 and she'd had a virus that lasted for weeks. At the worst point, we went to hospital because she couldn't even keep water down and I was having to syringe water into her mouth drop by drop. Her sleep had obviously been hugely disrupted being ill for so long and with a 3 yr old and newborn, I was tired but more importantly, she was tired too and beside herself most of the time.
At a checkup, I commented that she was in the pattern of waking and the gp said "We can break her of that silliness. I'll give you a prescription for phenergan elixir. It's for allergies really but you can slip it in her milk and poof she'll be out for the count for hours! We won't tell anyone what we're using it for though, will we?" with his finger pressed to his lips and a wink. I found it so menacing and creepy that I picked up my kids and walked out without another word.

Soubriquet · 19/12/2016 09:58

We haven't flown at all yet dingdong but if my children struggled with the flight, I would use it. I don't want to hear them screaming for hours. It's not good for them, me or the other passengers

Cityrat79 · 19/12/2016 10:01

We flew out to Florida with our nearly-2 year old. I had prepared iPad games and Peppa Pig episodes, and a tiny gift to play with to unwrap every hour of the flight.

We were delayed 5 hours at the airport, and 3 more literally sitting on the runway.

She cried for most of the 9 hour flight. I couldn't give a shit about the other passengers (obviously I did, but it wasn't my main concern). My daughter was miserable. Before heading back to the UK I spoke to a pharmacist friend, bought some over-the-counter cough medicine (available in the USA), triple checked the dosage, reduced it by half and tested it out on her whilst we were still on the ground.

A few days later when it was time to go home, we gave her the half dosage (that she had already had tested on her) and she drifted off to sleep sitting on my husband's lap.

Would I do it at home? No, never. At home I have the resources to manage. Would I do the same again, given the time again, on an aeroplane? Yep.

Aeroflotgirl · 19/12/2016 10:02

There are some really nasty people on here, really nasty.

dowhatnow · 19/12/2016 10:02

Myself, my sister and my cousins would line up every Christmas Eve to be given very generous doses of phenergan to make us sleep. It never worked though Grin

My parents were responsible parents but 40 years ago this wouldn't have been unusual. Now not so much.

Branleuse · 19/12/2016 10:03

Ive used phenergen on dd for travel sickness as its the only damn thing that worked for a long time. It mildly sedated her, as in she was more likely to take a nap, but that isnt why most people use it surely. I think going on a long journey is probably an appropriate time to use it. Its an anti sickness antihistamine, and the sedative effects are secondary and not guaranteed

0nline · 19/12/2016 10:03

Think sedatives should only ever be given if it's absolutely necessary and primarily for the childs benefit

Sure.

At 11 I was drugged up to the eyeballs with valium in order to get me physically into the dentist's (on the fifth attempt) to have essential work done. I had a similar experience to the phenergan, different, but similar. In the sense that I was trying to fight AND fight in a trippy way, but my body wouldn't respond. Terrifying. But they could bundle me in and do the work cos I was all floppy and couldn't go berserk like I had done in the previous attempts.

I get why they did it. Even though the memory is a far from happy one and contributes to my fear of any form of "not clear cut, properly functioning brain".

Speaking only from the perspective as a former child who was sedated, I would not be able to justify risking my child having a frightening experience, that they could not articulate once they came around, for the sake of something recreational as opposed to medically necessary.

I'm not having a pop at my parents. The doctor did the advising and the prescribing. And I have no doubt he thought he was doing his best for me as well as for them. But I didn't have the vocabulary to fully communicate how being drugged made me feel. And the post doping hangover exacerbated that. They just thought I had the odd, mild bad dream, making the trade off worth it.

It wasn't. Perhaps if it had been the single event, of valium to get me into the dentist's, I wouldn't have been left with a phobia of any medication that makes you fuzzy, or drowsy. I wouldn't get flashbacks at that moment as you drift off to sleep. Which jerk me back awake covered in sweat.

But it wasn't a one off. And I understand why. Having found something that controlled my stressed/anxious/bouncy response to events (and bedtime) my parents were seduced into seeing it as a solution that made their lives easier. Which meant they went beyond using it exclusively for times when they could have made a strong case for it being entirely for my own good.

Jux · 19/12/2016 10:04

Funnily enough, a thread about giving toddlers a liquid cosh was what got me onto MN about 15 years ago! I was reading that thread thinking "omg, I could give dd something to make her sleep....." (very sleep deprived, hadn't had more than 4 hrs sleep at a time for about 3 years) and someone posted "You mean you're drugging your children?" and so then I realised what I was thinking.

That was back when it was all fields round here Xmas Grin

RandomDent · 19/12/2016 10:12

My grandad would dip a dummy in brandy to help the kiddies sleep. :o

NeedsAsockamnesty · 19/12/2016 10:14

dingdong

Are you seriously implying kids with disabilities should not be able to have a decent holiday and giving a parent whose qualified doctor has advised she uses a medicine to assist her child grief?

If so your a disablist prick

Spikeyball · 19/12/2016 10:20

Dingdong hasn't got a bloody clue. If she spent a night at my house with my child not being given sleep medication, she would be begging for it. If we had to fly then I would have no hesitation in giving it.

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