Four times A DAY

[questabellatreetop]

My DS has tonsillitis, he needs four doses of medicine a day. I take this to mean he needs four doses in a 24hour period, to me it's painstakingly obvious, DH says only during the day, I think that is absolutely ridiculous. Who is right?!

Paracetamol is every 4 hours, but no more than 4 doses in 24 hours.

This is the second similar thread in as many days.
I would think that if you think DC is ill enough to need antibiotics you would want to administer them to have optimum effect. I agree with you OP give 6 hourly and perhaps adjust down to 8 hours over night if dc getting better

@AnnaMagini I always wondered about hospitals waking people during the night, why do they wake people up to take their temperature at night? I'd assume a nurse can just assess temperature without resorting to a temperature as a fever is fairly obvious?

Every time I've been in hospital, staff have given me the 4 doses I need during the day. I've never been woken during the night for meds.

My schedule is;
9am
1pm
6pm
9pm.

Pharmacist here. Stick to daytime, and evenly space the 4 doses during waking hours. This could be breakfast, lunch, dinner, bed

Depends how long your child sleeps.

An adult sleeping 8 hours might have the first dose at 7am and the last dose at 11pm so the other 2 doses at perhaps 12 midday and 17:30.

A child sleeping for 10 hours it might be 7am, 11:30 am, 4pm and 8:30 pm.

There is no need to wake the poor child up!

I meant 6 not 8 hours for the dosage of paracetamol of course #needtogobacktoschool

I agree with you OP, we always wake ours to give medicine.

I have asked Drs this and they certainly don't suggest yes wake up a child in the night. Just give every 4 hours in the day.
My mum was a paediatric nurse and prior to that a Norland nanny. I was very ill as a child and she never woke me up in the night to give me medicine.

My grandmother spent 20 years as head nurse of a children’s hospital and she says don’t wake during the night for antibiotics.

Every 6 hours to ensure the drug is at the optimal level in the child's system ie 6am, 12 noon, 6pm and 12 midnight.

Waking hours.

Let the child sleep. Absolutely no need to wake up in the night. 4 doses in 24 hours - as long as the doses are spread out there is no problem. ie 8am/12pm/4pm/8pm.

Doctor here too - you are BU! As multiple posters have pointed out above, 4 evenly-spaced doses in waking hours is correct, as per your DH. That’s why the instructions say “4 doses in 24h”, rather than “every 6 hours precisely”!
It would patently be ridiculous to wake a sleeping child to give meds in the middle of the night (only exception is iv antibiotics if seriously ill in hospital).
Hope he gets better soon.

Only time I’ve ever been woken for medication was when I had sepsis.

Ds regularly has antibs like this and the pharmacist says only in waking hours.

It's a guide to stop people giving more than 4 doses in 24 hours. That's my understanding of it. So four doses in waking hours and no more than 4 doses in 24 hours. No waking in the night I'd say but you could ask the pharmacist for clarification.

I used to be a nurse, and in the vmajority of cases, antibiotics were spaced out during the daytime - sleep is an important part of recovery too, and the antibiotics will be perfectly effective if you don’t wake your dd in the night.

No need to wake during the night at all - if he's unwell enough to need antibiotics then he needs as much sleep as possible.

Awwlook
I wondered if it was about something else too!

When I was a kid, the dr advised my mother to wake me. Now the advice is evenly spaced, no less than 4 hours between dosages as advised on this thread.

Phew. It's not just me with the mucky mind

I always do 6am - noon - 6pm - midnight.

I always woke my dcs up for antibiotics. It's what the doctor
told me to do. And the pharmacist.

No need to wake for antibiotics. 4 doses spread evenly throughout the waking hours.

Only during waking hours here. As soon as they wake and then evenly spaced.

I'd only wake at night if it was nearly life or death on doctors orders.

In hospital you would get woken in the night if you were majorly sick to check your temp, pulse, BP etc. But if you were getting better waking hours would be fine.

Same for antibiotics, oral or iv - if you are crazy sick then you are going to get woken in the night. If not, you can stick to waking hours.

Anyone at home can stick to waking hours - surely waking a sleeping child to give them medicine is just asking for trouble.