any calpol experts out there please?

[DelGirl]

ok, dd has been very very poorly for about a week. It has got to the stage where nurofen and calpol together barely keeps on top of the high temps (we have been to a & e twice)

I've been giving calpol 5ml every 3 hours. Is there any benefit doing this or am I better off or no worse off giving 10ml every 6 hours?

she's 2.7 bt. I just always felt that every 3 hours maybe better or am I kidding myself?

tia

Tovik- I'm a bit like that, I don't suppress mild fevers. I do when they get to 40 though, especially after ds3's convulsion (and he was having calpol when he had it). I think some of it depends on the child (and the thermometer!) I usually give a mild fever a dose of something at bedtime as well because I don't want it spiking overnight, and I've found that a good night's sleep can often do wonders for a mild illness.

yes.. sleep sleep sleep!
If mine have a temperature they shouldn't be given calpol to carry on at school, they should be at home resting and getting over whatever they've got. I also get very twitchy at around 40 but have stuck it out higher than that and the outcome has always been excellent. I know how the idea worries people though. But it's made my children stronger and more able to fight infection, I'm convinced of it.

It's really nice to hear from others that do it. I don't know anyone else "in real life" that does the same.

Tovik, i know what you mean about the research promoting pharma companies etc. Which is why, as a research scientist (well SAHM at the moment) i have chosen not to go down the industry route. Well one of the reasons anyway.

Its a difficult one.

I tend to try and avoid medication where possible, but i tend to think, when i have a cold etc, i feel like shit, paracetemol helps. I do know what you mean though about the temp being a sign that the body is fighting the fever, what i do not know is, do the meds stop the immune response, or just the pyrexia? (if that is the right word)

I think the problem you are describing comes more from over prescription of antibiotics and our obsession with clean (anti bac this, anti viral that).

Fever is an important immune response. Got this from a website for example:

"Fever is an important component of the immune response, though its role is not completely understood. Physicians believe that an elevated body temperature has several effects. The immune system chemicals that react with the fever-inducing agent and trigger the resetting of the thermostat also increase the production of cells that fight off the invading bacteria or viruses. Higher temperatures also inhibit the growth of some bacteria, while at the same time speeding up the chemical reactions that help the body's cells repair themselves. In addition, the increased heart rate that may accompany the changes in blood circulation also speeds the arrival of white blood cells to the sites of infection."

That's why I tend to leave a low grade fever - I do dose up if its very high as I think I would if it was me- and it makes you feel so rotten.

I agree to a certain extent with you tovik about not dosing up fever all the time. However, when it gets to the febrile convulsion point its necessary. That is also why a child should see a doctor if a temp lasts longer than 4-5 days as it could be an indicator of a more serious infection such as meningitis, as not all children get the rash, headaches, aversion to bright lights etc. Without specific antibiotics this would not resolve its self.

Personally I agree that children need sleep when they are ill and I prefer to use medised instead of calpol for a fever during the night because of that.

i'll tell you another reason i don't use calpol
what if it suppresses the symptoms of something more serious? eg meningitis
so child is dosed up, goes to sleep, and you don't know what's really going on

I think it is a case of using a bit of common sense tbh. I just go by how DD is, as well as the temp. Her normal temp is just under 37, i wouldnt dose unless she was about 38 with symptoms, or 38.5 with symptoms. But the thing is as well, it also depends on what sort of thermometer we use, i have an ear thermometer and swear its the best thing i have ever bought so i am fairly sure of the accuracy.

My doctor once said to me, if she feels hot, she has a temperature.

I wonder if there is a difference in dosing paracetemol and ibruprofen as they have different modes of action.

Tori - its difficult isnt it regarding how long do you leave with a high temp. TBH, after four days i woudlnt be fretting about meningitis as this does tend to come on quickly, but if my child was still ill and running a temp after four days i would certainly visit the doctor. The trouble is, some doctors just tend to dole out antibiotics, almost because they feel under pressure to "do something" by worried parents. I would much rather a doctor say to me, after checking, monitor and come back if no improvement as antibiotic resistance is a far greater problem than paracetemol.

I use medised sometimes but i am strict about only using it when she needs the antihistamine as apposed to a sedative. The reason being ( and its just my experience actually) is that if i use it for more than one or two nights, it tends to have the opposite affect and she always wakes in the night.

Do doctors still dole out anti-b's Lucyellensmum? We are almost never offered them these days. Even in milder bacterial infections the doctor has argued that the infection is self-limiting so we could just deal with it by using Calpol/Ibuprofen for any pain and fever, if it gets bad.

DS2 was really poorly in January with a very high temperature, aches and pains, sore throat etc. Went to the doctor twice as this went on for 10 days. Both times they said it was a nasty virus and that we just had to sit it out. I understand that viruses don't respond to AB's but it is awful knowing that there is nothing you can do for your child when they seem so ill and I can imagine that some parents would kick up a fuss and demand something regardless of the doctors advice. You just want to do something to help them and if you don't understand that AB's don't work for everything you won't let a doctor fob you off.

Blessed will be the scientists who develop something that can reliably treat viruses though. Think how much misery and upset that would save!

the problem would then be antiviral resistant viruses, the problem with trying to develop a drug to treat viruses is that viruses are nothing short of a bit of DNA that hi-jacks our bodies to replicate itself. They mutate (which is why HIV and AIDS are so difficult to treat) so the bit that drugs work againts, will be there one day, and not the next - ok so it is not as simple as that.

I do know exactly what you mean though niece, its bloody awful having to just watch and wait, especially when they seem to get worse. I remember taking DD to the doctors four times in one day when she had her first real tummy bug. She did end up being ill for over a week, in the end (i'm sure just to shut me up) the doctor sent off a stool sample, it turned out to be viral!! So, in that situation antibiotics would have been totally the wrong thing, as not only would they have not helped, they would have knocked out all the friendly bacteria, allowing more resistant bacteria to get a foot hold, with the potential for the next time she got an infection (viral or otherwise) for the bad bacteria to have a field day.

I think the public are much more aware of antibiotic resistance and the fact that ABs often dont help, but i remember my mum and her sisters berating certain doctors because they refused to prescribe antibiotics.

I don't think it is in the pharmacuetical industry's interest to come up with a "cure" for the common cold or flu as they make so much money with symptomatic treatment. It is the same for HIV it would seem, its not in their interest to come up with a magic pill that will be a one off cure, rather keep a patient on a whole cocktail of drugs over their lifetime and rake in the cash. That and of course the fact that the HIV virus is completely unstable and mutates at an alarming rate.

I agree it's great that the public are becoming more aware of AB resistace in bacteria. It does seem to be happening pretty slowly though, so many people do not understand the full relevance and importance of finishing a course of AB and that is a problem I think needs tackling now before we end up with even more serious problems.

Slightly even more off topic but what really, REALLY gets my goat is the stupid hysteria about general bacteria, all the sprays that you can spray your curatins with etc to stop bacteria living on them. WHY??? Do these people really know what they are doing? Why do they do it? We will end up with even bigger problems from the overuse of anti bacterial agents such as those in hand soaps, washing up liquids (???????). If we go about putting a general antibacterial agent on our skin on a dialy, or hourly basis, we are effectively killing it off the skin itself.

Lack of public knowledge about these things makes it very easy for manufacturers of cleaning products to sell this stuff. Whats worse is they seem to target parents as routine 'disinfect your highchair completely before and after each use or you might as well be feeding your child off the toilet seat etc etc'

Arrgghhhhhh...going now before I burst a vessel

We seem to have moved away from the OP a bit here (interesting though).

How is your DD DelGirl? Is she feeling any better?

Coby - you are right you can be too clean.

Not much danger of that in my house though.

wonder if anyone is going to mention vaccinations at some point (whoops just did)

is this a controversial topic here?

Could be, Tovik, could be.

Depends what you want to say?

Thing is that a child with a high temperature is an ill child who feels rotten and is in a lot of pain. If you can relieve that pain of course you should - for me I wouldn't use calpol as a fever suppressant; to me that's a side effect of using it to help the child feel less bad and less pain.

I suppose you could argue that the body has the illness for longer because the fever is being slightly suppressed and the body is not producing so many white blood cells to fight it, but if you gave ME the choice of illness for a little longer (but well controlled and pain controlled) or a blinding fever untreated, I know what I'd choose - and what I'd choose for my child.

there are quite a few people on here who haven't vaccinated at all Tovik.

sorry went away for ages again -- not reluctance to post i promise
and i'm v v pleased to hear it yurt 1 -- i thought there would be loads more on vacs on this site and it just all seems to be "when do i get my mmr done" or am i looking in the wrong place

Hi. She seems to have been a lot better today thankfully. She woke up yesterday with a temp of over 40 but stayed down during the day, then rose to 39 again last night. Today it hasn't been over 38 and the relief is overwhelming. I started giving her 10 ml doses of calpol instead of 5 and reduced the nurofen to 4ml & 3ml. Only gave her 5 when it was realy high. I sent a wee sample off yesterday and should get the results tomorrow and I think perhaps it is a uti now as she said her tummy hurt low down, presumably her bladder. BUt if the results come back negative I shall assume it was a really nasty virus.

I upset dd last night when I put her to bed as I said 'now you tell that horrible virus to go away' so you stop feeling poorly'. I
think she thought I was telling her off

I shall update tomorrow, thanks for asking

you need to search on some of my alter egos Tovik (gess, jimjams, jimjamskeeping offvaxthreads, baka). If there's been a vax fight I've been in it No but really I'm quite surprised at how many on here don't vaccinate (and that's posting as someone who hasn't vaccinated her younger 2- ds1 had the full works until he regressed).

Hope she's feeling better soon Delgirl. When ds3 had a high fever that went on and on (0ver a week) it turned out to be one ear infection following another. It did eventually go away.

yurt really sorry to hear of your son's regression are you one of the 1500?

going to bed but will "bump' this tomorrow as v v interested (is bump the right word?)

by the way am not troll (but then would say that wouldn't I ?) but really am not

Snap, Honoroia. Sometimes you have an obviously distressed child and it's stupid to prolong the stress when you have a reasonably safe way to treat it.

I AM dosing DD up with Calpol to send her off to school tomorrow. She's not feverish, but has been fragile and I think she's nursing a cold that makes her feel drained and tired.
She also has violin lesson and school disco tomorrow and would enter an almighty panic attack if I suggested she miss either... so just like I would take paracetomol to help me thru an important day at work, DD is getting some pain relief, too.

DC have run such high fevers with UTIs and ear infex that I could barely keep their temp to "just a bit warmer than usual" with combined doses of Calpol, Nurofen and antibiotics (very scarey). My brothers were prone to febrile convulsions and spent many spells in cool baths as toddlers, am so glad we have such effective modern alternatives.

please don't call people stupid
nobody's having a go you know