How many bottles of Calpol?

[Dickers]

My DS has just turned one and I have just finished my first bottle of calpol, we've used one bottle of medised and about a 1/4 bottle of Nurofen.
Is this normal? (What's normal!!)
Do we use too much pain releif because it makes our life easy? (I suspect I use medised sometimes more for my benefit, as it makes DS sleep)

The homeopath training sounds exciting Jimjams - good luck with it. I found that motherhood pushed me into learning more about how our bodies work/what fuel they need etc, and I think its great to get some proper training in it. Hope it goes well - aren't you learning Japanese too? Superwoman

I don't use any medication/homeopathy at all. Sorry I shouuld alter that I have used arnica on a handful of occasions. When kids fell.

When my children are off colour (as I like to say!) then my DH does some healing on them but that is part of our beliefs.

Ds is 3 and I've just finished his first bottle of Calpol (which had an expiry date of 10/03!). He's been lethargic and extremely gunged up since Saturday, but we've only been giving him the Calpol because (and when) he's been running a temperature. I'm very anti giving him any medication - partly for the reasons that Pupuce gives, although I did used to give him teething granules when he was teething.

We have actually ended up taking him to the doctors, as he had a temperature for 2 days and he does have an ear infection and is now on antibiotics. My brother and I were very prone to them - and this is his second or third infection - although last time it turned out to be an outer ear (or was it middle ear?) rather than an inner ear infection.

Having said that, the infections and two bouts of D&V are the sum total of ds's illnesses, so we can't complain. (even if the the last ear infection cost us over £400 as we had to change travel arrangements from flying to train, and couldn't claim it on insurance as we weren't actually CANCELLING!)

I don't know if my reluctance to go to the doctors and to get/give antibiotics (as most things are viral anyway) is BECAUSE my dad was/is a doctor! (even if most of the time he abidicates responsibility and says "if you're worried, go and see your GP" )

Unlike Pupuce though, I can't count on the fingers of 2 hands the number of times he's had a runny nose - he's permanently got a runny nose (although not normally VERY gunged up) - but then dh was apparently known as "Johnny Silversleaves" and I noticed yesterday that ds was learning the same habit! He's also been at a childminder with lots of other kids (there are three of them that run it, so it's more like a wee nursery) since he was 4 months old - but my view is that that is helping to build his immune system (even if he also seems to be avoiding chicken pox, which he may or may not have had at 5 months).

I wasn't always like this waterbaby. By the time he was 12 months ds1 had had about 8 courses of abntibiotics, god knows how much calpol, piriton, steroids, oral acyclovir, fucidin ummmm oh and all the vaccinations of course. DS2 (now 21 months) has had one course of antibiotics- he had a cord infection and was pretty poorly, and calpol once, and no vaccinations. I had to change with him really because ds1 had come out damaged - some of the medicaitons he had were necessary, but probably most of them weren't.

I started to look into alternatives, and like pupuce I believe in leaving the body alone as much as possible, so for example I don't give calpol for a mild temp as I think it's probably doing a good job of fighting infection. Once they get to 40 + I use either homeopathy or calpol as I guess they must be feeling pretty grotty by then.

Luckily I can do the homeopathy course very slowly. Not so much superwoman as very slow to start woman. ANd you've just reminded me I have Japanese homework to do tonight - agghhh

Its the starting anything thats the difficult bit Jimjams! Its interesting to see other peoples views on this though, I'm quite passionate about our solution, just because its worked so well for us, and as people have said on other threads, that makes you a bit evangelical. Different solutions for different people though, and differnt lifestyles. I'm glad its stayed friendly

tell me more about aloe- what form, how much? Sounds good. I'm the same as you- I'll use calpol/antibiotics/even vaccinations if necessary but not otherwise.

Glad it remained friendly too
To each his own I think !

Pupuce interested to know why you think your kids are healthy but its not luck?

My DS is in some ways very healthy but in others not so good. He has had two ops which have required a small (one dose really) amount of calpol. The grommets may not have been strictly necessary but his hearing has definitely improved subsequently. The one to remove large cyst with regular, heavy bleeding from face was definitely essential. Although maybe if I'd kept him healthier he wouldn't have got it in the first place.

He has a strong stomach. Only two vomiting episodes ever and one first week at nursery. But colds. He had his first at 3 weeks and it lasted 3 weeks and he was totally breast fed. Could this have been prevented by improvements to my diet? Very relevent question because expecting no2.

Not challenging you just curious, honest.

Bozza - I know you are not challenging me but I am tad reluctant to answer on mumsnet because (from experience) it might upset some and generate debates (a bit like immunization).... Feel free to e-mail me via my website and we can exchange

Fabulous site pupuce... Jimjams, tell you later - dinner bubbling over!

Thanks Waterbaby
Did you see the pic of the water baby??

Bozza- your ds sounds pretty healthy to me. One thing that is interesting is that children born at different times of the year have a different likelihood of getting different conditions.

Jimjams.... can you expand ?

very distant memory pupuce. I think hay fever and asthma went with being born in the summer and respiratory problems with being born in the winter. But could have that totally the wrong way round- I know that there was supposedly a correlation between conditions and season of birth. However didn't boter looking at original research so no idea how robust it was.

hang on isn;t asthma a respiratory problem? maybe it was something else in winter.... Sorry I guess I can't expand very well.

Jimjams - he is a really healthy, robust little boy. Just prone to lots of colds and chest/ear infections. Maybe because he was born February? Next one is due May so I will do a bit of an anecdotal study to see whether it makes a difference!

Thanks for the link to your website, Pupuce. I will look at it and e-mail you when I get a minute.

There are also correlations between medical conditions and birth order. Epilepsy is much more common in first borns, for example.

Jimjams ? I could talk for ages about aloe, as we have had fantastic results using it, but will try to keep brief (and to the point). There are a lot of myths about its use, but if you look at it scientifically it contains: 1) the right combination of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients to help support the epithelial tissues (skin, and mucous membranes inside the body), plus plant steroids (natural anti-inflammatories) and pain killers. It also has anti-pyretic properties, and long chain sugars that help boost the immune system. See anything there that would help in a loo roll..... hmmmm, me neither!

With a toddler in the house we use it almost every day as a first aid measure (after normal first aid)on bites, stings, burns, grazes, bruises etc ? it takes down inflammation, reduces the chances of scarring, and heals open wounds about 30% quicker than without. The biggest impact we?ve had is to use it for DP?s eczema (he?s suffered fairly badly but localised on his arms and around his eyes since childhood), and a friend suffered so severely her legs used to stick to the sheets every night, poor thing. Both now have it under control and DP?s scars are beginning to fade too.

I drink it every day ? actually this is how we were introduced to it, by a forward thinking doctor who?d read about its use and suggested it when the only alternative was taking steroids ad infinitum, after three years of trying conventional drugs etc. I was very sceptical at first but desperate, but now I?m on less painkillers a month than I was having in a day just before Christmas last year, and the CAT scans show a definite reduction of the inflammation. I give a couple of teaspoons to DD every day (well try to ? it does taste like the inside of a plant) to help get rid of the nursery bugs, and as a general supplement to help me relax during the difficult eating phases. Lots of IBS sufferers (MIL included) swear by it, and it is currently just over half way through a 2 year NHS clinical trial for use on IBS in humans.

So you can glug it back, slap it on, or spray it on, use it as a cleanser ? but to work it needs to be quality stuff, with more aloe than water IYKWIM..

Sorry for boring you all. Obviously this is just based on my experiences.

Interesting about the birth order/seasonal impacts, I'd not heard of either of those befoire now.

So is autism aloha.

That's really interesting waterbaby. My mum used it int he states for some really bad insect bites and it worked really well (she was given some). So where do you get it from? I've seen creams and stuff before but I supect they're pretty processed and no good at all.

Sorry, been looking through this thread and as many times as the same question has been asked, nobody has clearly answered what the long term effects are of using medised. ie: does it affect an individaual in adulthood and also how much is too much. My DH seems to feel it's very helpful for restful sleep and we have used about 15 bottles since GH was born. Obvioulsly mostly after 6 months and in accordance with the instructions, but can this affect into adulthod?

I don't remember how many bottles of Calpol I got through with ds1 (he's 4 now), not many, that's for sure as he was always pretty good with teething.

Now, my youngest is another matter all together. We have got through our fair share of calpol (can't use nurofen because of breathing probs). Jamie has had alot of medicine in his short life (he's 12 1/2 months). He's been of long term prophylactic antibiotics since he was 4 weeks old. Then he had open heart surgery at 9 1/2 months and was on 2 kinds of diuretics and is still on hypertensive medication. Most of the calpol we use has been for post operative pain, and also for any temps (raised temps make his heart work harder, so have to keep him temp free).

Medised, I am not sure what the long term effects are, but we went through a phase of using it once a night for a couple of weeks due to one cold after another. I found that when I tried to stop the medised, he couldn't get to sleep without it and I had to gradually wean him off. He can't have it now due to his breathing.

I do thing that sometimes, medicines are a good thing, althoug if I had a choice, I wouldn't use them as often as I do.