Fake Calpol recipe...

[emdude]

My 2 year old DS has been poorly for the last couple of days - temp, cough etc. He's been having regular Calpol, he loves Calpol.

Had his last dose 2 hours ago as his temp was up again, now in bed screaming for 'Caaaaalllllpolllll'. I've tried cuddles, books, water, more cuddles.

Am I crazy to be thinking about mocking up something and pretending it's 'Calpol' - and what would one use for such a thing?

Ibuprofen?
Better at getting the temperature down

I’ve given orange squash or Ribena in a syringe and saying it was medicine before.

Strawberry syrup a bit watered down if you have any? Or ermm.. i dunno honey maybe if you food coloured it?

Ribena

I've made fake calpol out of strawberry milk powder and water before

not unreasonable at all but not sure how you would do it
you could probably get the consistency with cornflour and water
and sugar would give some of the taste....

Cough syrup or honey?

What flavor is it? I'd think a little white corn syrup with some flavoring might work.

If he's still feverish though, I'd give him ibuprofen.

yes I think strawberry milk powder would do, add to water, add cornflour, heat to thicken then decant into a calpol bottle, make the outside all sticky as well

Cough syrup is our toddler placebo.

I give ibuprofen and paracetamol alternately every 3 hours which helps keep them feeling reasonable.

If you think he needs a placebo I’d go with honey or ribena.

I've used ribena as a placebo before in a calpol syringe and got away with it.

Don't have any ibuprofen and can't go out to get any as DS1 asleep in bed.

Desperately searching for strawberry milk powder - I know we had some!!!!

Tixy lix when we had the same issue. I was worried we were creating a habit but after a night or two it was forgotten again, good luck.

Obviously not for tonight, but you could buy some glycerin and add strawberry flavour. It is syrupy so should give a vaguely similar consistency. You can get it with flavours already added, but usually blackcurrant or lemon.

I would go for Ribena or similar. Is it not supposed to be strawberry flavoured? So forest fruits juice if you have it maybe made a bit thicker with some cornflour.

I would do as others are saying though and give ibuprofen as well. The other medicine you could try (not much use to you right now mind you) is tixylix. Fairly benign and you can have it alongside calpol and ibuprofen. It’s black currant flavoured I think

Have a taxi pick you some ibuprofen up if they're ill enough to need it that badly.

@LongWalkShortPlank he's not that poorly, just had a mild temp and a cold. The Calpol is enough to actually keep his temp down. It's more the fact that he's got a bit obsessed with Calpol!

Just tried summer fruits squash - rejected!!

Only cough medicines in the house is for over 12 years only!! Aaargh!!!

I've said before I think Calpol are missing a trick not marketing a placebo alongside the real stuff.

We've had the occasional night where we've thought there might be some tooth pain causing DC to wake up and they've both calmed the second they've had the medicine so definitely too soon for it to be the actual active content.

Got any ice lollies? Might literally chill him out

Not that that helps your current situation, sorry!

I'm definitely going to stock up on TixyLix for occasions like this!!

Yoghurt? Mixed with something sweet. Or puréed fruit. I think my 3 year old would think that was medicine, provided it was in a calpol syringe. Or very loose jelly?

Hope your ds feels better soon x

"Special" or "Magic" calpol (ie over sweet squash) worked with mine, as they then accepted the not the same taste.

Yep Dappled I’ve often said the same, why oh why, doesn’t someone sell a sugar syrup for the placebo effect! It’s not even that outrageous a suggestion given studies prove it works!