Baby died after night nanny gave Piriton

[examworries2026]

Just read this story and really shocked.

Is it normal practice for night nannies to give 8 week old babies antihistamines to sedate them? Appalling.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czd77edm8g1o

It is licensed for short term use for sedation because it is safe to use short term for sedation that's exactly why it's safe for people to use any time a young child can't or won't sleep.

Well said. The sleep deprivation was terrible at times (especially holding down a full time job as main breadwinner) but my motherly instinct was that a baby needs secure attachment to a human who has a connection with them. This nanny obviously did not have that connection as she didn’t birth the baby. The only other people who I would trust with my babies were my husband, my mum or a sibling.

I really don't think it is. My nephew was prescribed it for a long term sleep issue and the pharmacist would not accept that. He got one prescription that would see him through until he had his sleep clinic appointment.

Well this is where having that village and network comes in. That's why the "bubble" makes no sense for humans.

My nephew was prescribed it for a long term sleep issue and the pharmacist would not accept that.

That is because it's not licensed for long term use. It's very safe when used for occasional short term use.

Don’t tar all Nannies with the same brush as one or two bad apples! Every profession has a few wronguns, doesn’t mean we should ban the whole profession.

I am a Maternity and newborn Nanny and have been for over twenty years. I have a degree in Early Childhood Studies, Level 4 Maternity Nurse, Level 4 Paediatric Sleep Consultant, regular training to make sure I am up to current standards including safeguarding and first aid training, I’m Ofsted registered, I’m insured and I have had nothing but exemplary references over two decades.

There is a huge demand for professional help with newborns. Many parents are utterly exhausted in the first few months and if they want to pay someone more experienced then them to help them settle into a sleep and feeding routine, with emotional support along the way……… why on earth do you think this should be banned?!

The issue is the word nurse. I purposely use the phrase “Maternity Nanny” not Maternity Nurse, so that there is no confusion if I am a nurse or not.

But people don’t have the same issue with the term Nursery Nurse - we all know they aren’t medical nurses, but someone who works in a nursery.

Phenergen is a first gen antihistamine, the use of which are being phased out because they cross the blood brain barrier and are linked to the increased development of dementia. Newer non sedating antihistamines like loratadine do not have this risk.

<2 year olds should not take it due to the risk of respiratory depression. Just because it was done in the 2000s doesn’t mean it’s still considered safe.

Phenergan is the trade name for an antihistamine (promethazine) which causes drowsiness, it’s still available OTC in liquid and tablet form.

It was commonly given to babies on medical advice in 1980s to help them sleep.

No i certainly don't think you should only ever be the only person that looks after your child, that would be impossible. You would have to be pretty foolish to be absolutely 100% certain that you know nothing had been administered to your child without your permission.

But a night nanny would fall into the village surely? I trusted my mum to have my babies but as much as I love my friends I wouldn’t have trusted them to have my baby overnight. I would have trusted someone who I was paying who presumably came with good recommendations. I would also have hoped they would have given me some good advice and I wouldn’t have been struggling so long .

Did the night nanny admit to giving the Piriton? It could have been the parents? It's terrible though either way. But they said they can't say it was the medication and the cause was SIDS.

To all the people saying how could you have a baby and then hand it over to a stranger for all the night wakings, what about attachment/bonding etc………. please let me reassure you from someone who has actually worked as a Maternity Nanny for decades.

MOST of the families I have worked for do not hand over all night wakings to me. Most Mums want a helping hand and still do most of the feeding - but I can quickly prepare the bottle while they pick up and settle baby, or I help Mum to latch on if she is struggling with breastfeeding. And I’m there for emotional support - to quietly chat and reasssure and make sure that exhausted Mum doesn’t fall asleep feeding. Then Mum can get straight back to sleep while I put baby back in the cot. I am there to help support Mum and baby, not to take over all responsibility of the baby while Mum gets 9 hours sleep! Occasionally if Mum is utterly exhausted then I take over a few bottle feeds on my own, but this isn’t the case most nights.

I have 3 children of my own and I wish I could have afforded this myself. Having a newborn is exhausting and lonely in the night. If people want to pay for support to get through this, then what on earth is the problem?

Someone who hasn't had hardly any sleep since their babies were born? Did you have one baby at a time, who slept well? Or twins who needed breastfeeding for 45 minutes (and that required 2 people to be awake) every 3 hours and then took an hour to go back to sleep?

I think babies as newborns are really attached to their mothers. To hire someone to care for them as at a young age may have a detrimental effect. I think I would only hire a qualified and experienced nanny if I was in that situation. It sounds like not enough checks are being carried out. There are many short courses for different roles on the internet which are not official qualifications.

Phenergan is prescribed & as a sedative because unlike newer non sedating antihistamines it causes drowsiness. It's a very safe drug that we have been using for decades to sedate children.

We dont know the situation. It could be a case of rich parents outsourcing care, but also could have been a case of them doing it as temporary support so the husband can keep his job whilst the mum gets support for something like PND or PNP or surgery.

I had a one year old when my twins were born, after a rough time at birth (massive PPH) and turns out they both had feeding issues. One had loose muscles in his throat which meant that he had to have a special formula which was given cold, and then settled in his tum and solidified so he had to be held upright after each feed. The other had CMPI and ended up on Neocate. The other was on Enfamil. Plus both on ketotifen (sedating antihistamine) and gaviscon and omeprazole. In desperation I got a night nanny between 12-6 3 nights a week. My only regret is that I didn’t get her sooner, or for more nights.
I remember going to the clinic with all 3 in a giant triple pram and the HV saying “you’re doing great, you’re up and dressed!” It was a Friday morning and I’d last washed, slept and got changed on the Tuesday.

All those saying “I’d never do XYZ” well me neither, until all this happened.

Gosh that brings it all back. Firing multiple medicines into a baby with a syringe, pumping hours on end as I had to feed my baby upright so couldn’t give directly from my breast (that then caused regular mastitis) and having to hold them for 10 mins after each feed to let them feed settle, sugar water on dummy to help the baby deal with the pain. The constant gas rubs as it would build up horrendously, the extreme reflux vomiting day and night all over us and our bedding. Honestly I don’t have any fond memories of that first year of my first baby’s life. A night nanny would honestly have been life changing at the time just to give them the odd bottle even if I did the majority of the feedings so I could have 3 hours of unbroken sleep. We got though it but it was tough. Thankfully they have grown into rather nice teenagers but very unrepentant about their baby behaviour!

"the coroner also conveyed her concern that the person who looked after the baby was still working as a nanny."
Chilling.

I used a babysitter once and once only who gave my baby calpol 'because he had a cough' (??) without checking with me first. I was stunned... sent her home immediately with a pretty strong dressing down.

Obviously noone should drug babies/children period. I still believe that the little girl Madeleine was given an overdose (accidentally) by her gp parents who usually drugged their kids and left them alone at night when on holidays.

A night nanny might also be MORE qualified and cautious than some of the grandparents being quoted on this thread!

I would say that a balance is more sensible regardless of what help you need.

Although it is tough, you can usually work out a schedule that allows a new parent a few hours here and there to get a good couple of solid blocks.

I used to sleep 7-10pm, and usually 7-11am as well, and just took for granted that sleep would be patchy between 10pm-7am.

I'd have given a kidney for a night nanny at the time, but even if we had found the money or a kidney, our flat was too bloody small for one to do whatever it is they do... But have always been a tiny bit glad (very retrospectively) for those long, awful nights because it was sort of when I learned the babies.

They went via an agency who were presumably not cheap. Should all professional childcare be stopped because of horrible reports we hear from nurseries from time to time?

I rather fear the key word here is night, not nanny. Not all people employed to work at night are willing or able to keep awake at night. People seek out overnight roles in quiet environments like private households, so that they can sleep while being paid antisocial hours rates. I know this because I work in the care sector, which has made me acutely aware of the issue.

Just last week, there has been press coverage of a prison worker who slept on the job, which led to an inmate having enough time unsupervised to kill himself.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15715273/Prison-worker-sentenced-faking-records-sleeping-job-instead-checking-vulnerable-inmate-killed-cell.html

I remember Medised! I used myself when mine were ill. I thought of it as a toddler version of. Night nurse.
But I only used when they were ill and over one year old.
Plus when my were ill I slept in their room with them, because I am such a worrier.