To have put water in the syringe??

[rabbitheadlights]

Whining, moaning, Mardy 4yr DS has been going on for hours over the tiniest scratch on his foot. "It hurts" "it stings" "owwww" "I can't have a bath my foot hurts" .... Arghhhhh

DP then helpfully asks "do you want some medicine?"

I'm not giving medicine for a scratch so put water in a syringe and gave that.

DS none the wiser and he's stopped moaning!!

DP thinks I've conned DSant "that's tight!"

So YABU ...as DP says

Or YANBU ... there's a lot to be said for the placebo effect, DS has stopped moaning, no need for unnecessary medicine everyone's a winner!!

YANBU - I used to do this kind of thing all the time. One of my dc's was stung by a wasp and was screaming like a maniac. DH had tried a cold flannel but ds kept crying and thrashing, I think he was 3 or 4. I gave him a chewable vitamin C tablet, told him it was special 'sting' medicine. He stopped crying instantly, told us it felt much better. DH gave him another one a few hours later, just in case... .

And your ds will grow out of it, my dc is 18 now and doesn't lie on the floor and cry anymore (well not TOO often )

And yes to arnica cream, especially if they watch you carefully read the directions first and then apply it very solemnly. Magic.

Fucking genius.

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius I genuinely thought arnica cream does help bumps and bruises? I have been diligently popping it onto my sons head when he bumps it et. Is it seriously just a placebo???

My mother would have said, I'll give you something to cry about, I probably would have too.

If we bumped our head, as a child, we would have a bit of butter put on it
(sorry if someone has already said this)
and it was Full Fat Butter none of your namby-pamby 'light stuff or vegetarian option'. Maybe that why it worked

Ohhh yes - it is supposed to be good for bumps and bruises, @yetanothernamitynamechange - but it also cures the ones that cannot be seen by the naked eye but are causing huge upset.

Basically, I thought it might help the bumps but also had the placebo effect.

When DD was a toddler I used to stroke her ‘ouchies’ with my hair and sing the healing Ralunzel song from Tangled. Worked a treat!

yanbu
I have strawberry syrup (the kind for ice cream) as a placebo for all ails
if they then still complain about pain they can get the real stuff (though have moved on to normal tablets now that dc are older)

Mine used to have "blue medicine" it cured all ailments. It was milk of magnesia in a blue bottle !

YANBU. We have magic cream (which is any cream to hand, or germolene). If one of the kids has medicine (we have DTs) the other gets upset that they didn’t so we’ll give a syringe of squash so they’ve both had the same!

[quote yetanothernamitynamechange]@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius I genuinely thought arnica cream does help bumps and bruises? I have been diligently popping it onto my sons head when he bumps it et. Is it seriously just a placebo???[/quote]
depends on the kind of cream.
if it's homeopathic then it's just a placebo as it doesn't actually contain any active ingredient.
a herbal cream could have some healing properties, though minor bumps tend to heal quickly on their own.

but the gently applying a cream is comforting on it's own and makes both parent and child feel better :)

I wish I could do this but both of mine absolutely hate Calpol and nerofen.
The mere mention of medicine has them running away screaming, it has made for some stressful nights when they really are ill.

YANBU, although some 'magic' cream would have been more appropriate.

I need to do this a lot with my 4 year old. Anytime my eldest needs pain relief my youngest does too amazingly! Water in the syringe keeps everyone happy

I've done that loads of times. Works a treat

Space Jam taught me water can do anything if you really need it to.

Is it wrong to fake out a child, maybe

Is it better for the child not to take medicine when they dont need it, absolutely.

You did the right thing.

Yeah, I used to do this with DS and I'd use summer fruits squash so he didn't notice a colour change!

I found explaining that a clean and a plaster was all that was needed. If they kept on, I would ask if they wanted to go to the hospital. Worked every time.

Of course you did the right thing. Magic rub, kiss always in this house. Then observe without them knowing and only go stronger if necessary.

Oh and asking DH to get the saw also worked a treat.

All those against a harmless lie, are your kids getting a visit from St Nic?

It’s fine. After all that’s why band-aids (might be called plaster in the UK?) are put on little kids cuts, then they feel instantly better.

I'm with you. Have done the same thing myself!

My mother would have asked if it needed TCP if I had carried on that much with a scratch. That would have been the end of it. I hated the stuff.