Why don't the British like putting things up their bottoms?

[DuffyFluckling]

I have paracetamol suppositories for my children. I think I prefer them to paracetamol suspension syrups. No sugar or sweetner or horrid pink colour. No stickiness. No throwing up and wondering whether to give another dose or wait 4 hours. No struggling children who don't like the taste and don't want to take it.

There seem to be many advantages, and suppositories are commonly used in many countries, but not in UK. Why is this?

[carolbl]

I think most children, anywhere, do not enjoy having suppositories pushed up their bottoms. I know I certainly didn't when I was little and I never got over it psychologically! I witnessed a suppository insertion on a constipated toddler when I was an exchange student in France and believe me his reaction to it was just like mine

[ChampagneDahling]

Have you seen the size of those Menopace pills, think I'd rather put one up my rear end !

Personally I try and keep away from my teenagers' bottoms - smelly things...ewwww

[hoarsewhisperer]

i think its a question of what you are used to. My ds will say to me, Mummy, I need a pill in my bottom when he is really sick. We live in Holland and it really is no big deal.

Personally I often use upzebum paracetamol when i am feeling ill.....doesn't make you feel like puking for one thing.

[CrossWhy]

Suppositories tend not to be prescribed in the UK due to the difficulty in delivering a reliable dose. If they drop out you cannot redose as you do not know how much drug has been absorbed. Also for some drugs if suppository is inserted too high a significant amount of the drug will be metabolised by the body before it has a chance to act.

[rumple]

Have used a glycerin suppository on my 1.5 yr old daughter for constipation. Though I appreciate they help. My daughter really didn't and spent half an hour squirming and squatting like an elvis presley impersonator until she'd got it out. Which lucky was the objective but don't know how it would go if it needed to stay in for pain relief?

[alibubbles]

Paracetemol suppositories are 1.4 euro a box of ten in France, they are £18 - £24 here!! ( Unless you can persuade your GP to prescribe them) I always used to stock up when mine were little when in France after DD being ill on holiday and I was given these. I get them for my friends.

It is so much easier than forcing down Calpol which neither of mine would take.

They would however take good old plain BP Paediatric Sugar free suspension, 100 ml is about 50 pence, dispensed from what looks like a gallon container!

[nymphadora]

My dd2 used to throw up at taking medicine so I used to get her supp BUT they were really hard to get hold of as the chemists would have to phone round and track some down. When I was throwing up all the time I used them and it meant the pain would go and stop me throwing up!

[PortAndLemon]

Mine have both always loved Calpol or Calprofen (to the extent that I have to watch out for DS malingering just for the medicine and we have significant envy issues if one is ill and the other isn't) so I can't really identify with the picture painted here of wriggly infants and small children fighting to get away from the medicine and spitting it everywhere. But if I could then I'm sure suppositories would be lovely. In a manner of speaking.

[loulou33]

I was terrified of using suppositiories with ds2 (6mo) who had terrible constipation so gp gave me glycerine supps to give him. It was nowhere near as bad as i thought and in fact ds2 thought it was very funny and giggled the whole way through.

Mumofapickle - ds2 has very chubby bum cheeks and it took two of us to do the deed!!

One question though - having read this post from the beginning, i am still not convinced as to why you would take a child's temp rectally (MmeLindt) when you can buy v.accurate and realtively cheap ear thermometers to use at home these days? In fact why would you use a mercury thermometer at all, these days? I get the sense that there is something here about, 'i've always done it this way, so i'll keep doing it' but there's no need to stick a thermometer up a child's bum anymore!!

[HopeForTheBestExpectTheWorst]

They are the preferred meds to give to children here in Germany too, which surprised me at first. They are very effective, but ds seemed to start getting bothered about it after about age 18mo and is v. good about taking medicine orally, so I usually give them a miss.

However, I'd be very interested in knowing what the cough suppositories that you use are luxmum. Ds seems to be a bit prone to coughs, and I also seem to be practically feeding him cough syrup for days and days before it gets any better.

[belgo]

Mumofapickle- it does take practise to put them in quickly and efficiently, and if you are nervous, then that will transfer to your child. I've barely used them for my children over the age of one year.

The eucalyptis ones are good as well, they make the poo stick for about 24 hours! Also have used ones to stop vomiting.

[SallyJayGorce]

DS had a paracetamol suppository when he was in A&E with a rocketing fever once. Eyes rolling, copious vomiting etc they suspected meningitis and were running down corridors with our boy - all very dramatic. Half an hour after the magic bum pill all was calm and improving by the second. Very good for bringing down a fever when lots of vom involved and I never give them medicine unless they are ill enough not to mind. Not problems with arses thank heavens. Otherwise who would change the nappies on the butler's day off?

[MumOfAPickle]

Oh and to answer AlistairSim, your arse absolutely sucks things up! In one particularly devout yoga class I went to, the teacher told us that you can do your own colonics using a piece of plastic tubing and a bucket if you practise.....She even told us that we would find said tubing hanging on the back of her bathroom door should we want to check the type/length needed

[MumOfAPickle]

Right, I am in no way against suppositories but I have some practical questions if no-one minds getting detailed

My DS (15 months) has fairly chubby butt cheeks and surely I would have to spread them to get to the anus. This would mean one hand to do that and one to do the inserting and therefore no hands left should he decide to bugger off (ahem).

It would be good to have this as a backside up plan as although he's fine with Calpol he was a bloody nightmare the one time he needed antibiotics and I didn't even consider this as an option.

On the right/wrong front I agree that its a British thing. I'm not at all squemish but would imagine that I'm alone amongst my friends in not having a problem with the arsehole area...

[Luxmum]

It's really common over here (Luxembourg) and in fact they much much prefer to give supositories out to sick children than oral medicine. It also seems to work much better, if the Dc have a cough, I give them cough supositories (though they are under 3, so it's a quick wrist action as they get out the bath and it's all done). No coughs. It also seems to just contain eucalyptus oil and glycerin, or whatever the waxy subsctance is. ie much more 'natural' for them.. Woprks esp well on fevers, esp when children refuse to take their meds..Otherwise I'm spooning neon pink cough syrup into them daily for 2 weeks, with absolutely no effect on the cough at all. I'm a convert, defo.

[belgo]

We use them here in Belgium, very effective, especially when my babies were exclusively bf and refused to take anything orally.

Particularly effective when dd2 was unconcious with a febrile convulsion.

[Sago]

I used to have them as a child (grew up in Spain) and a short while after it was inserted it 'came out' (I am sure I helped) in the toilet. So my mum gave up on them and used to ask for alternative ways of giving me medicine.
ssh..don't tell your children that trick if you want to give them sups!

[wem]

I'm not sure I have a fixed opinion one way or the other, haven't had to deal with giving medicine to a struggling child yet, but I was very shocked when the HV at our postnatal group said GPs wouldn't prescribe suppositories because of 'child protection'. She seemed to imply that abusers could use the fact that a child had had suppositories to cover any damage caused by abuse (I think. If that wasn't what she meant I have no idea what she was going on about). Which sounded absolutely crazy to me, and even more so after reading this thread.

[nooka]

Ooops - should be "spoon of medicine" I don't think I've ever been keen on swallowing actual spoons!

[nooka]

I can maybe see why with a baby it might be easier, but I certainly would not be happy about shoving things up the bum of an older child unless medially necessary. Once my two were old enough to understand why they needed medicine it's never been a battle, and the sugar and colourings are hardly a big deal. I would never use a rectal thermometer - why would you ever need to? We had the thermometer that went under the arm - no need for any trauma at all.

My nephew has to have suppositories when he has a major fit - it is needed because it is so much faster acting, and that matters a lot when his brain is under threat. I don't think it is the worst thing that my sister and her husband have to cope with, but it certainly isn't one of the pleasantest activities. If I was feeling rotten I really don't think I'd be wanting to put my head between my legs and stick my bum in the air, compared with swallowing a spoon or medicine.

But then my children have luckily been pretty healthy (I think maybe four or five courses of antibiotics between them). dd did go through a phase of spitting out calpol, but stressful though it was it was pretty fleeting really. Bribery has always done the job quite well in our household.

[DuffyFluckling]

My ds doesn't even notice when I give him a sup.

He definitely notices when I pin him down screaming and choking to force a syringe of revolting syrup down his throat. Then he spits half of it back. Then he vomits the other half for good measure. And WHY do they make it pink? Seriously. "Hmm... we have a very sticky liquid that parents will be trying to administer to their children in their bedrooms. It will almost certainly be spilled and vomited in quantity. Let's make it bright pink!"

[ninedragons]

Back in the distant wilder reaches of my youth I used to know two (English) lads who were evangelical about taking their Es rectally.

You would always see them standing in the queue for the handbasin with their index fingers in the air, starting to gurn.

They never convinced me.

[LissyGlitter]

When I was in labour, i was throwing up all over the place and begging for pain relief. The midwife refused again and again, before finally admitting that the only thing she could offer me was something "up the bum" as she put it, i think she expected me to refuse. As if i would have refused ANY pain relief!

It's just your bum! Get over it! I hate taking tablets, I wish everything could be given rectally.

[happilyeverafter]

I had to give DD one when she was severely constipated, don't think she noticed it go in.

Dr told me that that in countries that use them for most meds people don't have the stomach ulcers that arise from oral meds.