Dreaded Calpol - Any natural alternatives?

[MissMisery]

Hi there,

I wonder if anyone out there can suggest a paracetamol infant suspension that isn't full of E numbers and artificial additives? I am quite happy for my ds (14 months) to have paracetamol as I realise how useful this is to treat fevers etc, but would rather he didn't have the other bits that make it flourescent pink and sickly sweet!

I spoke to my GP this morning about this, and he said that he gets asked this question more and more often, but that he couldn't recommend anything himself and suggested that I should speak to my pharmacist - I have already done this to no avail, but figure if there is such a demand, there must be the product...?

Any suggestions gratefully received

you can get the one with sugar instead of the sugar free which has the nasty artificial sweeteners.

TBH the benefits of the paracetamol outweigh the goop it comes in! It's not as if your child will consume it by the bottle! I think they are made to taste nice because a child will not swallow medicine if it is nasty (think how paracetamol taste if you let them start to dissolve in your mouth.)

agree with isaidno

Good question. My DD just flatly refuses it at the moment so I'd like to try something else perhaps something that could be added to her milk? She hates nurofen and medised too.

I find when she has any of these medicines she's bouncing off the walls. I suspect the E numbers but what can you do?

If teething is a problem you could use the homeopathic granules -they don't work for all children but they were great for my two when they had teething problems.

(check the ingredients though as nothing is completely natural and I can't remember what else was in them other than chamomile)

The teething powders don't really do anything for us. I have a friend who is a homeopath and she says the dosage of chamomile is just so small that it's unlikely to do anything.

Can you crush half a paracetamol perhaps and put it in milk? [Thinks, will have to do some calculations]

you can buy paracetamol suppositories for children at most, if not all, chemists. they are extremely expensive but your gp can give you a prescription (in fact i am surprised that your gp didn't recommend them... the ones i use are called alvedon) a lot of english people don't seem to like the idea of suppositories but my friends from the continent wouldn't dream of giving medicine any other way (which is how i heard of them in the first place).

i discovered the suppositories when i found calpol and medised made my ds hyper. they contain no nasties at all and actually, if you use a little vaseline, i find are far easier to administer in the middle of the night than calpol. they also seem to work quicker.

Will watch with interest to see if anyone comes up with an alternative.

we searched (with no luck) last month, as dd1 was poorly (earache - so definitely needed pain relief). Dd1 is gluten and dairy intolerant, and cannot have any sweeteners/MSG/flavourings. Try getting all of those requiremnets in a children's medicine!

we spoke to several pharmacists, who all said that they were being asked more often for additive free medicines, but there are non available for children OTC (do check when buying the sugar versions of stuff too - even the pharmacists were amazed when we pointed out that they now contain sweeteners as well)

The solution suggested to us was to ask the doc for a prescription for suppositories - they obv do not have flavourings/sweeteners added.

I guess it depends on how much oyu want to avoid the additives - it is bordering on essential in our case - dd1 is ASD and goes loopy if she has anything not natural (and the bigger she gets, the worse (and more dangerous) "loopy" becomes)

I imagine paracetamol in suppository form is colourant and sugar free.

Many thanks for all of your responses.

I would be more than happy to add the Proverbial 'spoonful of sugar' to help the medicine go down if only I could find something that was just paracetamol. I suspect (though will check) that even the Calpol with sugar instead of sweeteners has other nasties.

Re. suppositories, my German neighbour swears by these (as the above) and I did mentioned these to my doctor who said that they are not really 'the done thing' here. And tbh I would rather not have to go into nappies in the middle of the night (nappy change is a bit of a bug-bear with my ds at the best of times!)

I'm going to tour the chemists and the health food shop this afternoon and pick brains, so will report back with anything useful.

Thanks again

Hi

Are there any dangers in using these products (Medised, Calpol ?) My DS is 6.5 months old and seems to be teething. He goes to sleep as usual around 8 but is waking every night around 10 o'clock really crying, sometimes with flushed face and desperately chewing at fingers. We've tried Teetha grains which don't seem to do much. We bought some Medised as he had a really bad cold over the holidays, but have ended up giving him a half dose (2.5ml)most nights for about a week now. This seems to stop whatever's bothering him and allow him to go back to sleep for the rest of the night, although he's sometimes awake for an hour just babbling etc before he nods off again.

I am worried about this; fear he might have developed a "habit" and be unable to sleep without it. I think there's so much going on for him at the moment - getting teeth, starting baby led weaning, learning to crawl etc - that it's difficult to pinpoint what the problem is. And how come his teeth don't bother him so much during the day ? DH is of the opinion that it's a medicine specially designed for babies, we're only giving a half dose once a day, and it's more harmful for him to be up half the night screaming. We're also still giving Dentinox colic drops 3 times a day as without it he has terrible wind (flatulence, not burps) which also leads to him having very wakeful nights. Last tried coming off this a fortnight ago. HV no help.

I'm worried we're pumping him full of chemicals for the convenience of everyone having a good night's sleep. Is it excessive ? He's my first child, I'm still BF on demand and we co-sleep.

Calpol etc are not 'addictive', if that is what you are worried about.

excess paracetamol in a single dose can be very dangerous, ie an overdose, but the recommended dose is fine

It would be very difficult to persuade children to take unsweatened paracetamol;, as it is very bitter. So you really have to put up with either sugar (which will freak out half of MN) or sweeteners (which will send the other half of MN into a tail spin! )

suppositories would be suar free but would contain other chemicals to allow it to be 'delieverd' and the UK has quite an aversion to the anal route of drug dosing

I honestly think that for the small amounts of calpol given, and for the short, sporadic periods it is given for, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. Yes, it would be ideal if there was a natural-sugar-organic pain-killer, but as there doesn't seem to be, keep asking for it (best way to get it in due course) but give available calpol without a second thought for the time being. Your child's liver is there to get rid of stuff the body doesn't want / need.

Thanks again for your responses.. it's nice to know I'm not alone in my quest (or completely neurotic...!)

Report back from the town is not very useful I'm afraid. Four chemists, all products (own brand and otherwise) with at least artificial flavours and preservatives. The health food shop suggested Belladonna.. anyone have any experience of this? (Methinks it can't be as effective as paracetamol? Terrible cynic I'm afraid)

I think you're talking sense Blu - in that the benefits outweigh the downsides as far as occasional use goes - but it's not ideal. Like you say, we need to keep asking for it until some pharmaceutical company realises that there's a massive gap in the market!

The only other thing I've come across (on the net) are 'Fennings children's cooling powders'. Definitely paracetamol based, but they don't list full ingredients, so I've emailed them, and will let you know once I get a response.

Thanks all

I think belladonna is a deadly poison, so I wouln't be rushing to administer that in favour of the odd FSA approved E number - modern science does have some advantages!

Yes - belladonna is deadly nightshade - used in homeopathic remedies...not, ime, effective for immediate pain relief or fever reduction!

My problem is that my DD just won't take it without a fight, not that I mind giving it to her, although it does send her into a tail spin! So that's why I want a different version to hide in something else.

My 2 always had calpol (with sugar as I don't like them having sweeteners even now) and they are both fine. I don't think it had any adverse effects, in fact, when my dd2 had an operation she had calpol and nurofen together - yuck - revolting stuff, but she loved it.

I would not recommend crushing half an adult paracetamol and giving it to a child without discussing it with GP first.

I'm a suppository user too, if mine are ill enough to need any pain relief they generally vomit it straight back up.

I do think that as long as the lo does not have a severe reaction to the rubbish in it the so be it, as Blu say in an ideal world orgainic medicine would be readily available. It's not everyday.

I did get a very concentrated paracetamol for the LO's when they were really small, I'll try to remember its name and come back, could only get it from a specific tiny chemist though.

Infadrops made by Goldshield.

I think it is still full of rubbish, but it has far more concentrated paracetamol, therefore less meds needed.

Ingredients list

DRUG PRODUCT
Other ingredients
Other ingredients consist of pharmaceutical excipients, namely purified water,
glycerol, sodium citrate, Macrogol 400, citric acid monohydrate, propylene glycol,
methyl p-hydroxybenzoate, propyl p-hydroxybenzoate, raspberry flavour No. 1,
saccharin sodium and erythrosine E127.The inclusion of each excipient is justified.
All excipients used comply with their respective European Pharmacopoeial
monograph, with the exception of Raspberry Flavour No. 1 and erythrosine E127,
which comply with satisfactory in-house standards. Satisfactory certificates of
analysis have been provided for all excipients.
A letter confirming that the glycerine used in this product is of vegetable origin has

Have just googled and the only thing it recomends as an alternative to calpol is.,.......calpol. Seems there isnt a herbal or natural remedy out there, there is some evidence to suggest that calpol is a bad thing in that fever helps the child to fight the illness though. Was {shock} at that

Thanks, Batters - didn't know that. Interesting. Have revised opinion!

Mine are older now but I've always used soluble paracetamol I dissolve it in 20mls water and give in a syringe. 10mls gives 250mg. Follow it with a drink of water.

It doesn't dissolve completely so the dose can be a little off but no more than your average spitting, struggling child taking a dose of calpol from a spoon.

I have experience giving other meds this way though so understand it's not for everyone.