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?!

Another vote for you'd be bonkers to wake a child up to give medicine x

Morning, before lunch, before tea, when going to bed ...

Well you learn something new every day....I can't believe people think they have to wake during the night to take meds.

As a nurse we never wake people during the night for medication, it can be evenly spread during waking hours.

and yes, Mum2jenny in theory you would be correct, but that would only be relevent for drugs that are precisely measured for bodyweight and a metabbolic test done to see how fast they are cleared from the body, so because the doses are standard, and often have quite big jumps in size (250mg or 500mg for one AB that my daughter regularly takes) a bit of leeway is fine. I have to administer a huge amount of medication and have been doing so for 14 years now, and this is what numerous home care nurses, doctors and hospital staff have said. It is only really important with the most toxic IV drugs to be honest.

We’ve all had tonsillitis in our house and are quite the pros as DP had it often for a year till they took them out last year. It means four times in the day. So usually when they wake up, lunchtimeish, mid afternoon and then before bed. The struggle is the timescales before and after food. Hopefully he gets better soon I know how horrible it is.

We were advised to wake DS for an inhaler when he had a chest infection but not for antibiotics.

I don't understand why pps are picking up on ' children needing sleep when they're ill" You're only rousing them for a minute or so - it never interferes with mine or dh's or my dc's sleep. Wake up, swallow, go back to sleep.

I've brought up 6 children so have given countless courses of antibiotics and many of my friends and family are doctors. You do not have to wake a child to give them antibiotics.

You're only rousing them for a minute or so - it never interferes with mine or dh's or my dc's sleep. Wake up, swallow, go back to sleep

You do realise all people are different though, right? If me or DD1 were woken for meds, we’d be up for hours. DD2 and DH would go straight back to sleep.

....I can't believe people think they have to wake during the night to take meds

I do it because it's what my doctor advised me to do. I didn't make it up in my head and just 'think* it. It's not much trouble to do, so I do it. I definitely don't feel as though I'm doing it 'wrong'. It's worked so far.

If me or DD1 were woken for meds, we’d be up for hours

Fair enough. If it doesn't work for you, then it doesn't.

I spent a lot of time in hospital as a child and a teen. Oral antibiotics were given throughout the day, I was never woken for them.

I'd maybe take the advice of all the health professionals on here who say don't wake your poorly baby.

And Am I the only one who thought this thread was about something else entirely no, I only clicked because I was expecting ruderies 😆

Love that all the actual doctors, nurses, pharmacists have said waking hours only, but there are still folk that think they know better telling op to wake up their child...

This.

The only meds I've ever taken in the middle of the night were mahoosive painkillers after an operation. Antibiotics can usually wait until patient is awake. If in doubt check with your doctor or your pharmacist.

Love that all the actual doctors, nurses, pharmacists have said waking hours only, but there are still folk that think they know better telling op to wake up their child...

This

This Again.

No sign of OP?

Oh and yes... I was another one who clicked on this thread because I thought it might be about something completely different... although I also thought it might be a bit of a wind up...

We do breakfast, dinner, tea, and bed with 4 hours in between
Recurrent ear infections in this house

DCs have had many different antibiotics at home and in hospital, some we’ve had to wake in the night (usually the stronger more specific ones and when in hospital) as we’ve had to have a 5-6 hour window, others have a minimum 3-4 hour window so can be spaced in the day. Ask your pharmacist what’s right for your child and the meds they are taking.

I asked my husband who is a pharmacist and he said hey say every 6 hours but realistically you make it workable and there's no point waking during the night to take medicines.

Well this has blown my tiny mind. I’m a pharmacy dispenser and when handing out penicillin (which I suspect OPs child has been prescribed) we always advise to ‘take one, four times a day, an hour before food or two hours after food (ie on an empty stomach)’ but frankly it never occurred to me to spell it out to people that this means during the waking day only! Obviously I’ve had a few parents check with me over the years, with panic in their eyes at the thought of rousing an ill child to force tank tasting medicine down their necks in the middle of the night, but going by the sheer number of people waking children for antibiotics I think I’m going to have to change my advice! Waking hours only people, waking hours!

I asked a doctor and was told last thing at night and first thing in morning is perfectly sufficient, as suspected. Anyone who wakes children up in the night is just plain neurotic in my personal opinion. There's no need. Rest is needed in order to heal. That's why we're sleepy when poorly

Waking hours, reasonably evenly spread.

I’ll never understand some patients I’ve had who follow instructions to the exact letter, right down to omitting doses where they haven’t been able to follow the EXACT instructions. Yes the medication might be recommended on an empty stomach but it’s not going to work at all if you’re not taking it

I wish others would follow CuppaTea and make it clear to her real life patients... I now regret the times I struggled to get drugs into DS at unearthly hours of the night (and at the end of it most of it was on the sheets or the floor anyway as he is a complete nightmare when it comes to medicine).

I was advised by a pharmacist to set an alarm and wake myself up- I was on my third type of antibiotics and the next step after this was minor surgery to remove infected skin.

She said normally it didn't make much of a difference, but given how important it was it worked this time, to set alarms and make sure they were evenly spaced across 24 hours.

So... I'm inclined to say it might make them marginally more effective but in most cases there's no need, but I'd try and do as close to 24 hours as I could allowing for a reasonable amount of sleep.