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

Not just that, but the perceived success of a night nanny is a (mythical) ability to stop a child waking in the night - something she can use to brag about with other clients.

If I had paid, I'd be paying on the basis that the night nanny could support in the midnight-6am zone on the grounds she could sleep during the day.

They literally had their children's hair tested to show that wasn't the case. No sedatives were found.

Well, not everywhere. In 2024 it was banned from prescription in New Zealand and Australia for under 6s due to the risk of psychiatric and central nervous system effects.

Could you and your partner not have taken turns going into the sparrow with your baby?

That said this I can kind of see why a single parent with no support might do this. I use to babysit my friends kid 2-3 a week at one point.

Back in the 60s, my family's GP recommended "a wee dram" of whisky in my DB's last bottle at night to help him sleep through.

I’m sorry you went through that / but having a baby in the ICU is obviously not the same as having a night nanny.

I thought you weren’t supposed to give a newborn anything? They aren’t teething yet and their bodies are so small.

My DD is three and half and slept through the night for the first time last night. On average she would wake up 4-5 times, when her eczema is bad it’s hourly or half hourly. It’s torture and has made me and DH ill at times. Yet the idea that I would oursource the care of a child wanting her parent’s comfort to a stranger is abhorrent to me. I get a close relative who they know and feel safe with. But no way would I pay someone to comfort my child in the night. It’s like paying someone to have sex with my husband!

There have been any number of threads on here over the years were someone has asked for advice when travelling long-haul with an infant - the replies have often mentioned various forms of sedation!

Terrible situation

I realise how desperate parents get for a decent night's sleep but hiring a night nanny to me would be in a desperate situation.

Encouraging tummy sleeping and giving piriton is just madness.

My son’s father during his time with my son often left him to be babysat by his sister who would regularly dose him on medised. Because his father had the right to choose where he allowed his son to be cared for during his time and medised was completely legal, nobody would do anything to help me even though I knew it was happening. Luckily he was fine but even remembering that makes me feel sick.

Me too. Why have a baby?

I'm sorry to say I think this is quite common. My sister (a nurse) used to dose her baby every night with phenergan. She's a lot older than me and this was before I had dc of my own and knew anything about anything really. I would report her to ss and her professional body now. She denies it so she knows it was wrong, but I saw her do it and saw the bottle where she kept it in the fridge. The irony is that she was a really neurotic parent and would rush him to the GP if he so much as burped, yet she did that. He's an adult now and has such appalling hayfever he's needed injections for it some years. I'm wondering now if being given an antihistamine from the day he was born might have been a cause of that. It's lucky nothing worse happened.

Yes. What is the AIBU about it?

AIBU is a joke topic to loads of Mumsnetters and probably 100% of the rest of the world who've heard about it.

Not appropriate for a thread on infant death.

I'm sorry but I think it's capitalising on what is essentially the destruction of the family. The people who should be doing that role are the friends and family of the mother and new baby. Not someone hired while the mother declines the presence of the grandparents. This is wild.

No that falls under paid help. The village is paid in reciprocal community, not hundreds of pounds a night.

It's just odd to pay someone to look after your newborn baby. Especially in an age where people refuse their mother's presence for days or weeks.

What should be stopped is the fact you can do this job with very little training and while using misleading titles like "nurse".

I thought the same thing. My mother, partner and family members did that stuff for me — it would have been beyond tragic to have to pay someone to, essentially, care about my wellbeing postpartum. The fact that enough people have got so little support that this is a viable career is really a sad indictment of our culture.

Absolutely.

I don’t support it in the sense I think it should be a last resort, and yes maybe it is unfortunate if you don’t have someone to help with a newborn and have to use a paid service like a “night nanny” as opposed to close friends or family.

However if someone is providing a paid service to fill in for what “should” or used to be done by family members, arguably all they’re guilty of is providing a much needed service.

The fact that enough people have got so little support that this is a viable career is really a sad indictment of our culture

This is true and sometimes they’re living near close friends and family who could easily help , but also sometimes it’s just the reality of people who move to other countries/new cities before having children. Not everyone can afford to take several weeks off work and fly out or travel a long way to come and help them.

"It’s like paying someone to have sex with my husband!"

It really, really isnt. 🙄

My DM used to take Piriton when she was having trouble sleeping, it certainly helped her

I thought the whole point of the night nanny was to allow the parents to sleep and if that meant she was walking the floorboards all night then that is what she is paid for, obviously I got the wrong end of the stick

So glad my DD didn't employ a night nanny. She did think about it as she was at her wits end with DGC who had silent reflux and wouldn't sleep unless she was on someone

Edited to add and yes I did go across at 2 o'clock in the morning and sit on my DD's sofa with my DGC to get her to go to sleep. Silent reflux is awful

Parents have to be crazy to use night nannies for their newborns. Newborns should sleep in the same room and in close proximity to their mother for several months in order keep their nervous system as calm as possible.