How much Calpol is too much Calpol?

[notsuchayummymummy]

I guess I am asking about frequency of doses rather than qauntity. There is history to this although I am currently in limbo. DC1 (to cut a long story short) has an oesophageal stricture of unknown cause. She has been in to have proceedures done at our nearest teaching hospital - and has been referred onto Great Ormond St for more investigations and work (possibly). When the problem first truly kicked off at 8 mths (this time last year) she was even starting to struggle to take milk. She had 3 proceedures that meant she could eat - allbeit only easy stuff.
The problem appears to be really brewing again - to the point that at 19months she is mainly eating puree, seems to clearly have tummy aches (lays scrunched up on the floor alot). She is also generally grumpy, failing to sleep through and very tired. As I am almost certain she is in pain I gave her calpol last night before bed and this morning before her snack and nap - as she hadnt eaten anything to that point.
Great Ormond St are trying to get her on the list asap - the teaching hosp dont want to do anything as they are trying to minimise the amout of General Anaesthetics. Admittedly I have not taken her to the GP - only the surgery nurse who was worse than useless- suggesting there was nothing wrong with DC despite history and vomiting 3 times in the surgery ( v bad day!). Tbh I think it is out of the surgerys depth.
Meanwhile I am not sure what to do - I know the hosps are all doing there best - BUT what do I do with my unhappy toddler who appears to be in a lot of discomfort. Ought to add that the calpol does seem to sort it out. Maybe I should speak to an out of hours gp? But without them knowing the history I am not sure they can help - and the local paeds ward referred her on also as they are not equipped to deal with the issue.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Hi there, No direct experience with this but my DD1 was born with a consdition called Trachea oesophageal fistula and Oesophageal Atresia (TOFs) see www.tofs.org.uk for more info on this. Obviously this is not what your DC has has it would have been diagnosed at birth, but one of the ongoing problems for my DD can be the presence of strictures. Have you ruled out reflux as a cause for the stricture? Just the other symptoms you describe (tummy ache, poor sleep, grumpy, scrunching up etc) are obvious signs of reflux and if reflux is severe it can cause stricture. If you think this could be a problem I would see the GP and be quite forecful about trying some antacid medication (gaviscon, ranitidine, omeprozole and domepridone) are the most common ones. Sorry if you know all this and have already tried it but it was the first thing that sprang to my mind.

Are you asking whether to give her capol at all, or whether you should watch how much you give her?

In your situation I would give her calpol according to the guideline dosage for her age if it is helping - she is in pain and it is a painkiller and so helping her. I guess I would see my GP too though to see what they think as to how long it is ok to give it to her.
Although, as I understand it, paracetamol is thought to be fine to have longer term - unlike ibuprofen which causes stomach problems.

Ask for your doctor's advice as there is an underlying condition.

Stick to the OTC dosage unless/until they recommend a different regime.

Ok, so too much Calpol is taking more than the does recommended on the bottle, or taking it more frequently than advised.

Agree that you should seek medical advice, but as it's not an 'emergency' wait till Monday and speak to your own GP.

There are few things worse than chronic pain, I'm guesing that one of the things worse than it, is being in chronic pain and being too young to verbalise this .

So my advice for what its worth, is to give the recommended dose of Calpol at regular spaced out intervals ( no less than 4 hour apart ) until you see your GP.

Why wait for your DD to be in unbearable pain before you provide pain relief if your gut instinct is that it's helping?

My DS (5) now taked the max dose of Paracetamol daily to manage chronic pain - and this is likely to be ongoing for a long time until we move to requiring a stronger painkiller, and has no ill effects from continued dosage.

Admitting that my DS needed pain relief was not an easy decision to come to and without the sage advice of another mumsnetter (and very dear RL friend) I wouldn't have been able to come to that decision.

Wishing you and your DD the very best of luck! x

Thank you all for your replies

stump thank you for this - there has been a query over reflux - and the plan is to test for this again. I was not aware that reflux could cause strictures. That said I would hope that her two experienced surgeons would have concluded if that had been the cause - they say it looks more like a linear ulcer in appearance but say they have not seen anything like it - or behave/feel like it before?

Iloveautumn I guess I am querying how much to give her day in day out - as I know you are not meant to give it for more than x days. I am not exceeding the dose - she only seems to need 2 x 5ml to keep her more comfy - mid morning and evening.

scaevola you are exactly right - thank you.

Tobagostreet There are few things worse than chronic pain, I'm guesing that one of the things worse than it, is being in chronic pain and being too young to verbalise this . - I couldnt agree more - I hate this - I really really do.

Her comfort is really the most important thing to me - and I guess I feel in limbo - because whilst the teaching hosp have been excellent with her to date - we are now between the two and they know what her symptoms are at the moment and have given me no advice as to how to manage it :(

Thanks again

Hi - in your position I would give her 2 doses of calpol per day while she is in this pain. My understanding of paracetamol is that this would not be harmful to her.

But, I'm not a dr - I would probably see my GP and say - this is what I am going to do to manage her pain - does he/she think that would be harmful.
Ie, I would ask the direct question re the amount of calpol that seems to help your daughter, as it seems from what you say your GP doesn't know about her condition.