Long(ish) term use of Calpol/Medised - a problem?

[designerbaby]

Hi there, DD has been poorly since early January. She's had a rotten cough/cold, (as have we all) conjuntivitis twice, plus has been busy cutting 4 molars (still not completely through) and 2 front teeth.

Understandably, without a bit of Calpol (or Medised if she was really snotty and congested - the only thing which helped) we're all pretty miserable.

But I'm concerned now, that this has been going on for over a month and we've barely had a day without resorting to some kind of medication at some point. And I'm worried that I might be damaging her in some way...

That said, we've never dosed more than once a day, and rarely used more than the minimum recommended for her age. It's usually at bedtime when she's really tired, snotty, coughing and in pain.

I'm just really conflicted. She's really miserable (esp. with her teeth) if we don't do anything, but then again, I'm reluctant to medicate at the best of times, and because it's gone on so long I'm started to feel anxious about it.

Any wisdom? Would be grateful...

db
xx

Sorry, should have said never dosed more than TWICE a day... Maybe I should have another lemsip...

It's so hard isn't it? Obviously not ideal to be using paracetamol long-term. Could you try other remedies like Karvol on her sheet, or snuffle babes on her chest? Perhaps some anbesol on her teeth.

i agree with Lou - look at some alternatives to paracetamol

for teething pain, anbesol on the gums or chewing on a frozen face cloth is good

the karvol plug ins are good and olbas oil on a tissue in her room

I'm using all the other remedies as well... Olbas in her room, Vicks on her chest (and feet , humidifier, various gels and powders for teeth, frozen stuff to chew (she won't).

It's just without the Calpol she's just crying, crying, crying...

I'll try and wean her off and hope she starts to get better soon (seriously, how long can all this last??).

What are the long term risks?

db
xx

a long term and very rare side effect is liver and/or kidney damage

this is not meant to scare you by the way

why don't you call your GP and discuss it?

Why don't you ring your GP or HV and ask them? They won't think you are nuts for asking. If you're lucky they might even have some useful suggestions!

Long term paracetamol is fine for adults, btw.

I would speak to HV or Gp

We had a similar problem with ds2 I recall. We reduced the Calpol gradually (sorry if you're already planning to do this), ie if you normally give 5ml, give 4ml instead for a night or two, then 3ml for a night or two etc.

Very quickly he was weaned off it, maybe a coincidence? who knows.

You're using no where near the maximum number of doses so I wouldn't worry.

If I had constant tooth ache as well as a cough and cold then I'd be taking something to ease the pain, so why should we treat our kids any differently?

Saw GP - was quite dismissive - said 'give her Calpol if she needs it' and looked a bit when pressed further.

But then I am the PITA mum who has brought her DD in three times now for what's 'just a cold and teething' (oh, yeah and conjunctivitis for which she had a course of antibiotics). I was worried about a secondary infection because of her rattly chest and '40 a day' cough etc.

I'm beginning to think they're going to put something on my notes along the lines of 'neurotic first time mum, keep quiet and hopefully she'll go away'...

Liver kidney dmamge... gawd...
[anxious emoticon]

db
xx

don't be anxious - that is really, really rare

can you see another GP at the practice?

Maybe HVs will be more helpful... I just don't know what we'd do without it...??

db
xx

Try NHS direct?

That's a thought, Iwish...

Maybe try and get your hands on some baby orajel, MUCH MUCH better IMO for teething than Calpol. It's a US product but I think you can get in some pharmacists over here.

Calpol isn't really going to help with a cough or cold anyway and you shouldn't be using Medised (unless it has been prescribed and then it should be used as recommended by your GP) as your baby is under 2 years old.

It is hard - I know, my DD has been constantly sick since starting nursery in September! - have you used saline nasal drops for cold? Tipped the cot? Cough mixture to coat the throat? Vicks in hot water by the cot? It will pass eventually!

Not sure if it helps but have been through much the same with my DS2. It seemed all last year he was just cold after cold, had a really bad fall where he cut his head and bruised it badly, plus then later also had teeth coming through and conjunctivitis!!!!!

My doctor seemed to be sypmathatic but basically said if I kept to the dose as on the bottle it would be fine.

I also tried the vicks on the feet thing!

Try not to worry - at least you care.

You WILL cope without it, it's frustrating and horrible having an ill baby but it's not the end of the world. Do you work? If you don't then try and nap together during the day.

Do you give DD vitamin drops? My DD had a cold for about four months, it is really common and I got short shrift from my GP as well, although I was adamant she was ill and needed something. According to my doc the average under 2 gets 12 colds in the winter months, that is 2 colds per month!

FWIW, DD2 has been in a vicious cycle of cough/cold, teething, sick bug since just before Christmas, too. And we have gone through a fair bit of paracetamol and ibuprofen.

If you are doing everything else, you may just have to ride it out. Perhaps do give the reducing doses, see how low you can go before its a struggle again.

Since this has been going on for a while I would recommend having a consultation with a homeopath as sounds like a constitutional remedy would help with all the issues.

Like you, I'd be more concerned about the rattly chest lingering than anything else, as that's more significant than teething in health terms that is... however your wee girl would probably beg to differ as teething is not nice!

I've had a lot of success with chamomilla for teething, but there are other remedies and with the other problems you'd need advice. And there's no need to worry about side effects with homeopathy. It's cheap too!

Hi in sept last yr my dd (now 19 months) was teething and waking most nights so we gave her calpol (and sometimes medised if she was also bunged up) within the dosage for about 6 weeks pretty much every night.

Anyway at start of nov she had a virus so we occasionally gave her calpol in the day, on advice of docs. She then seemed to have an instant reaction to it, i.e. almost immediately, within minutes, she would be her usual happy, playful self, rather than it taking the more normal 20 mins or so to kick in. We realised she was also having an instant reaction to it at night i.e. going straight back to sleep.

We began to worry that maybe she was getting a bit too dependent on calpol as such an instant reaction didn't feel right to us. So we decided to go cold turkey and had one hellish night where we had no sleep. Within a few days she was back to sleeping normally without any medicine and she stopped having it in the day. So it appeared she was abit addicted to it! We felt like incredibly bad parents and have been much more cautious in our use of it since.

We still give it to her at night very occasionally when she is definitely teething or is very bunged up but now she can have it one night and then go for many nights without out it and not waking up, so we seem to have broken the dependency.

If you got to the end of that (sorry it's so long!) then what I'm trying to say that is if she is having an immediate reaction to it, e.g calms down straight away, then maybe she is becoming dependent on it but if she is definitely teething then it is a difficult decision to make to stop giving it to her. We weren't sure if dd was or wasn't teething but because the virus was wearing off we knew we had to stop giving it to her so frequently and thought we would take the risk of stopping it completely and see how she reacted after a few nights. Maybe try and reduce the dosage gradually as snooks suggested or alternatively wait abit longer until her cold subsides and the teething seems to bother her less before trying to stop giving it.

I'm going to TRY not to rant about this.... here goes...

PLEASE don't worry about giving your child paracetamol if she is in pain, whether it isfrom teething/cold/whatever.

you are not going anywhere near the max daily dose for a start.

I work with GP's, and they are forever whinging about parents who dont give their child Paracetamol/ibuprofen when they need it as they are worried about them getting dependent etc, then they present to surgery with a rediculously hight temp/ irritable child etc.

I approached my own GP when my DS was teething with the same question and she replied that most people will give calpol daily through teething periods, and more often than not over a 12 month period.

If your child is in pain, you should administer the apprpriate medication, just like you would do for yourself.
It is a different story if you are medicating to settle them to sleep (ie with medised), but if they are in pain, I think it is cruel not to.

cases of liver damage are sooooo rare, seen with abuse of medications.

Pls dont worry.

Am I wrong in thinking that Medised has an ingredient that helps babies sleep? I would be worried about the use of that on a regular basis (let's say more than three nights in a row) I'd prefer to use Calpol and Ibuprofen alternatively if needed. For my DS, ibuprofen seems to work well on teething - and both mine have had colds, stomach bugs, eye infections, the lots since November. Went to the pharmacy and asked for calpol: can I have your largest bottle please? She looked at me funny!!! we go through lots of it. ...

I was once told by my gp that giving Calpol in normal doses when dd is ill won't hurt her, but not giving it could have negative effects (temperature etc). When we give Calpol we always give the lowest dose - 2.5ml rather than 5ml. I personally don't like to use it too much, but that's because it's a nightmare trying to get it down dd! it usually ends up being thrown back up again which just upsets all involved!

I was surprised to read that you were given antibiotics for conjunctivitis - that usually clears up without any medication, and if not eye drops do the trick.

How is the weaning off it going?

HI all - DDs doing a bit better thanks... She's been well enough to go back to nursery and so I've been back at work - hence the tardiness of my responses...

Her nose has stopped streaming - she's still a bit snotty, but much better - hence we've stopped using Medised (it was the only thing which stopped her from sleeping/waking in a pool of soaking wet snot which is why we used it - not to get her to sleep - in actual fact that was easier while she's been ill ? all she's wanted to do was sleep - most unusual for our DD!). My bottle says suitable from 3 months, and although I've ehard that guidelines have changed, since it was the only things which helped, I decided to go with what my bottle told me!

She's coughing less, which is being kept under control by liberal use of Vicks and a humidifier in her room at night. She's rattly in the morning, but it seems to get better as the days wears on (but is worse at night if we dont use the humidifier). It doesn't seem to bother her too much now, and I do remember the GP saying when she was poorly once before that the cough often lingers for up to a number of weeks after the other symptoms have cleared, so we're trying not to worry about it too much.

She's still teething horribly, however. The bottom molars are now completely through and things are looking a lot less red and angry, but the top ones are still inthe process of cutting through and giving her a lot of jip. The wet mattress from snot is now wet from drool.

So she's still having the occassional dose of Calpol, or sometimes Calprofen if she's really upset with them. Generally during the day we can distract her, and keep her mind of things so are only occassionally giving a daytime dose. But when she gets tired after her bath she's getting really cranky with them so most nights we've been still giving her 5ml (she's 15 months, so that's the min dose on the bottle) after her bath.

Without it she's been taking ages to settle, then waking up an hour later screaming and competely unable to settle until given some pain relief.

I don't think she's hooked Maxmissie, because it still takes 15-20 minutes for her to calm down - it's not an instant' thing. And besides, she doesn't like the taste much.

Coochicoo - we were intially given an ointment for DDs conjunctivitis, and only when that didn't work, and things actually worsened, were we given antibiotics, which thankfully cleared it up in about 3 days... I don't like them, personally, but her eyes were in a right mess.

Novocane, thanks for the reassurance. I just didn't feel I could/can leave her in pain when I wouldn't myself, but it's nice to know that I'm not alone in thinking that, and that side effects are rare. And I know I'm only doing the minimum and not OD-ing or abusing them...

Hopefully those damn molar will cut soon and then maybe we'll all get a bit of a break...

Thanks all for you messages though. Your advice and support is much appreciated...

Homeopath defo soundls like something we may investiaget further anyway - she suffers so badly with every tooth. When I'm well enough to get it sorted we'l follow that up (even though DH thinks it's all hocum... tsk...)

Thanks all

db
xx