Calpol avoidance - but when to give?

[hillbilly]

I'm quite anti medicating for the sake of it, and figure that a high temp is the body trying to heal itself (this is on the doctor's advice btw). DD ((8) has had a temp of 39.6 for the last 2 hours. Should I give her paracetamol or wait a while?

More and more doctors are following the guidelines. If you decide not to then that's fine but I don't think you should be telling other people not to.

really? I haven't met on.

one not on

Must be moving a bit slower in your area. :)

I'm a minor illness nurse and DH is a GP. I have recently updated our GPs on the new guidelines. As others have said it is not advisable or beneficial to use paracetamol as a temp reducing medication but to use it as a pain killer is fine. Treat the child not the temp. Most children with high temps alone are not picked up anyway as it's usually the distress that causes parents to take their temp.

I know this thread has a lot info in it but i dont think anyone has mentioned the E numbers and parabens in calpol. Parabens have been linked to hormone inbalance and ealry onset of puberty so for this reason I rarely give my dd calpol. Only if she is clearly in pain or has a v high temp. There are plenty of other ways to reduce temp, bathing in warm water (not cold or hot) works very well.
I wish there was something available to give them that wasn't full of crap. :(

Ohwhatapalaver - I don't know how you feel about Saccharin but you could use disprol as an alternative. It's soluble paracetamol and is suitable from 3 months - dosages are given on the packet. We usually dissolve it in water and then mix it with a bit of juice/smoothie and they drink it with a straw.

OhWhatAPalaver using tepid water is not a recommended way of trying to lower a temperature as it fools the body into thinking its cooling and stimulates a compensatory effect, the body then heats itself up further.

In all the years I've been nursing it's never been recommended.

I didn't mean tepid water, I meant like a normal bath. I know you don't use cold or cool water as it can make it worse.

Thanks for the info on the disprol, might give it a go :)