Waking a child up in the night for antibiotics

[travellingwilbury]

Have you ever been told to do this ?
My very nearly 4 yr old has got a small boil type thing on his leg and I have been given antibiotics for him . All fine and normal so far .

I went to pick up the prescription to be told that he had to have it 4 times a day and it had to be every 6 hours even during the night .

This is surely nonsense ? I have never been told to do this before . I know the dose should be spread out evenly during the day but waking a sleeping child to give them horrible tasting medicine just seems nuts to me .

Sounds like a load of rubbish to me too-but it does depend on the antibiotic (some need strict renal clearance) but these are rarely given to children in the community. Is it Flucloxacillin? If so you can give that spaced out in the day-ie 0800,1200,1600 and 2000ish.
HTH

Have you read the leaflet which came with it? If it was really necessary to be every 6 hours I would expect the leaflet to say that very clearly, because it's not the usual thing with most antibiotics.

It is just bog standard fluclox so I have always just given it out in the past well spaced .

I am glad its not just me that thinks its odd .

if he doesn't wake up at night I wouldn't wake him to give it to him. Sleep is important for the body's recovery. Just space it out very well during the day.

I'd just space it out over the day. Even when DD2 (at 18 months) had to be nebulised to treat a chest infection, they didn't suggest that she should be woken through the night!

Sorry, that's not clear - she was nebulised in A&E, then sent home with ABs.

Thank you , maybe she was just being a bit overly keen . I am just glad that I knew to ignore it really . If this had been with my pfb I may well have done something pointless .

I read your thread title and thought "How ridiculous!" Then I read your post and see that you agree with me ( or I agree with you)
I have never heard of anyone being told to do this in over 20 years of parenthood.