Additives in medicines

[Liza80]

A little while ago, I decided to google all the E numbers in my Calpol bottle, what I found shocked me to the very core!
I urge you all to do the same with any childrens medicines you have.
It's so upsetting to think that I gave this stuff to my beautiful baby girl, while being so careful to avoid anything nasty in her diet.
I have contacted various people about this, including my GP, J&J (who make Calpol), the MHRA, and the HACSG, who have documented links to behavioural problems.
Basically everybody is pointing the finger at someone else, so it's up to us parents to kick up a fuss about this.....

lljkk and curlew - it's disprol. You use 1/2 - 1 depending on the age of the child. Not difficult or scary at all. They give the recommended dosage from 3 months on the box. What on earth were you imagining

I don't know if I ever gave disprol before. My youngest now 5 so Calpol a rarity in our lives, but will keep that in mind. I only knew about soluble tablets for adults so with no advice on them for kids.

gave = heard of ruddy MN autocorrect.

I work in a health-related area. I know for a terrible fact that many many adults struggle badly to get medication instructions right, so very much an easier said than done issue. If I was exhausted dealing with very poorly child that increases chances of getting it wrong for me, too.

Fair enough lljkk, I wasn't sure if you (or curlew) were imagining me stewing up some strange concoction in a lab out in the garage or something

Disprol has a list of additives too.......

I assume what other posters were imagining was what I've seen advised on here before which is to dissolve the entire tablet in a given volume of water and work out what volume you'd need to get the correct dose.

It's really dangerous because the tablets aren't designed to be used that way and may not incorporate properly so you don't actually know what dose you are giving. You may well be over or under dosing. If the tablet it designed to be split in half then dissolved then it will be fine.

Yes, curlew, I'm not a huge fan of saccharin. Just thought I'd suggest it as an alternative for people who want to avoid calpol.

Claydavis - Disprol is very much designed to be used that way. It is soluble paracetemol and it is suitable from 3 months (younger under doctor advice). The dosage for 3 months to 1 year is 1/2 - 1 tablet (dissolved) every 4 hours. from age 1 to 6 it is 1-2 tablets every 4 hours. It doesn't matter what volume of liquid you dissolve it in - you give them the same dose (So less water is better usually - less to swallow!) I usually add a bit of juice/smoothie to help with the taste and they drink it with a straw.

Oooo I didn't know about disprol - thanks bumbley

Sorry, should have clarified I'm aware disprol is supposed to be used like that and it's already in the correct dosage so you just give all of the liquid its dissolved in.

I was trying to clarify that lljkk and curlew may have assumed that what you meant was to dissolve an adult dose 500mg tablet dissolved in say 200ml of water and then work out what volume of water to give based on the dose of paracetamol you want to give. Like I said I've seen it advised on here at least twice before and it's stupidly risky.