Toddler overdose

[tripledose]

What would you do in this scenario?

I left DH alone with DD, who is two, for the long weekend to see friends. I take one weekend off a year.

While I was away she came down with a fever and he gave her TRIPLE the dose of paracetomol every 6 hours for all of the three days. I asked him have you double and triple checked the dosage and he said yes yes. I didn't want to second guess him even though I was worried because we have had arguments in the past about me double checking what he says/researches when DD is ill - he says it shows I don't trust him and I am too controlling.

We have spent the day in hospital because I came back to him giving this dosage and was worried about liver damage. Thankfully she is ok but I am furious with him and was out of my mind with worry that DD would suffer permanent damage in some way.

He's pretty competent on the whole but I feel he let his pride and ego get in the way here and risked DD's health as a result.

What do I do? I am so angry.

He's pretty competent on the whole but I feel he let his pride and ego get in the way here and risked DD's health as a result.

The ego thing isn't what risked her health, that was his inability to read and understand instructions. Why did he get it so wrong?

How did he make that mistake? Did he even read the packaging. Once you could say was an accident but after you asked him about the dose did he not double check the packaging? We’ve got 3 DC so are pretty familiar with calpol doses for each age but each time DH and I both double check, just out of habit more than anything. I would be furious. Was he giving her 15ml a time?

Protoct your child. Ditch the husband. Its not going to get better, only worse. He's shown you the real him. His ego matters more than his own child.

We live abroad, I assumed he was reading the paper instructions that come with the medication but he was on the NHS site which is for a totally different medication.

We have lived here for 5 years and always use this type of child paracetomol so he should know, I have no idea why he thought he should use the NHS site.

I'm glad DD seems to be ok. But triple dose, several times a day, over a few days, could have caused very serious problems.

how has he been today?

I think his attitude now would determine my next move.

if he was upset with himself, & acknowledge his mistake & how badly it could have ended, I'd consider staying with him, but if he was blasé about it, it would be over & I would push VERY hard, for supervised contact only.

we can all make mistakes, but his 'know it all' arrogance & instance you are over protective & don't trust him is something he needs to face up to & apologise and LEARN from it.

Sometimes things happen more than once around the world.

So it's different to the kids paracetamol dosage we have in the uk?

Were the instructions on the bottle?

@Hankunamatata they are on the paper leaflet inside the box, they're not hard to access or anything.

@JuneJubilee he feels very bad but we haven't talked about it because I am too furious at the moment. To make matters worse, in the hospital after first visit with the doctor I popped out to get a drink and use the loo and asked him very clearly to call me back if the dr returned (they only allow one adult in with child as a covid rule hangover). He didn't do as I asked

So it's different to the kids paracetamol dosage we have in the uk?
I wondered if this could be the issue. My DH has family in another country and their standard paracetamol suspension is a much stronger concentration than what we get in the UK. Personally I found this very useful when my kids were little and would always bring bottles back with me as it was a lot easier to get a couple of ml of the stuff down my medicine refusniks than 10ml of calpol, but it obviously needed a lot more care in measuring the dose and you needed to be super careful not to get confused between the different concentrations.
It's possible perhaps that the OP's husband has given what would be the right volume of Calpol of a stronger solution? Not that that's an excuse, but it would at least be a logical explanation. I think its always really important to get medicine doses in mg not ml for this reason.
I'm glad your LO is ok OP and hope your husband realises his error and learns from it. That must have been scary.

@MrsAvocet he checked the NHS site because he said that's what I always use. He's not even British, he's just an idiot

That’s a massive mistake OP

The NHS site tells you how many mls to give and of which strength so I'm struggling to see how he could have made that mistake by checking the NHS site. Surely when he looked he would have seen 120mg/5ml and 250mg/5ml and realised neither of those and their subsequent doses correlated with the bottle in his hand

DC accidentally ate a paracetamol when a toddler. I phoned the NHS in a panic. The said not to worry and he would have to take more than 1 to harm him.
When some time has cleared. Have a proper talk. He’s been thoughtless but fortunately no harm done.
Find out what a dangerous amount of paracetamol over a certain period would be for your DC. Then for future you know.

It's because he doesn't see it as important.

That's why.

A staggered overdose is slightly different. There are calculations based on amount & time & body weight

I would imagine a triple dose every 6 hours over 3 days would be classed as dangerous.

Pediatric nurse here. OP, I am horrified. Your husband has been extremely neglectful. Any overdose of paracetamol can be fatal. Once your liver starts shutting down, that is it. There is very little the doctors can do.

For your husband's future reference, if you can trust him, a child's dose if 15mg per kg, 4 times a day. It can be increased to 20mg per kg per dose, but I wouldn't unless you ask your GP.

I would be absolutely furious in your shoes. How could he get it so badly wrong? Is he normally an idiot? Can he not count, or does he have difficulty reading?

Does he at least accept that he has massively fucked up and does he have a plan to make sure it never happens again, given that he clearly struggles with the obvious "read the instructions" option?

Triple the dose, every 6 hours, for 3 days and your daughter is okay?

Blimey.

What was even wrong with her in the first place that she was needing paracetamol every 6 hours for three days?

Do the Dr's know it was him that did it? Or did he use the time without you to shift the blame?

Do you know what, I probably wouldn't even know if my DH gave our kids an overdose of medicine. Because I trust him to do the right thing and don't need to check up on what he's doing with the DC every two minutes.

You don't trust your DP to look after your kids. Whether or not that's because he's an imbecile or because you're too controlling is for you to decide. But you don't trust him and trust is something that is very hard to build back again. You will always be worrying 'what if'

What you need to remember is if you do separate, he may be allowed to have your child unsupervised for a number of days at a time. How would you feel about that?

My husband drank practically a whole bottle of calpol when he was a kid. He was taken to hospital and they basically kept an eye on him but declared him fine because 'he's a big lad'.

This was when they were living in Singapore so he must have been about 2 or 3.

He was and still is fine so try not to worry too much. The family laugh about it now.

As for your husband, was the bottle not in English or something? I'm not sure how he could have missed the dose. I'm not surprised your pissed at him though.

Op, I had a friend that went away in very similar situation to you and her OH gave the child a similar dose. It came out over the course of a few arguments that he had done it by not paying attention, then by accident, then because he wanted her to be subdued for the three days. He believed that the calpol would make her sleepy. She reported it to the hospital when getting her kid checked out and it was reported to SS. An awful lot of people (wrongly) believe that calpol is a sedative and so give it to ensure a good nights sleep etc ☹️

If the child is at the top of the age range and weight for age they might well be in the safe dose range in mg/kg. My mid/upper centile 3 year old boy is only 2kg lighter than my 9th centile 7 year old girl and they're 3 age bands apart for doses...

I do double check the mg/kg when my older one goes up a band - we've been close but ok every time so far. I don't bother checking for him as he is much more central in the range.