Placebo for calpol?

[Jadedcynic]

I know this sounds ridiculous, but has anyone invented a pink sticky placebo? My DD loves the stuff not that we give it v often, and I am convinced that its the ritual rather than the substance itself, and want to test my cunning theory.

I don't know, but it would be a great idea. I'm convinced DS2 is "ill" mostly because he loves the stuff. When he was tiny and I thought he was putting it on I used to give him water on a spoon, but he sees through that now!

Glycerol/glycerin from bakery section (perhaps watered down a little) with some pink food dye and strawberry flavouring.

Perhaps a little extreme tho...

HLL, brilliant! Will report back.

ds often has 'growing pains' in his legs.
we use hot waterbottle first, then strawberry syrup in a syringe, then calpol or nurofen.
but only if we are not sure if it is just whingeyness.

It's not pink or sticky but arnica gel is a great placebo for generally sore bits, as far as I am concerned. It is designed to work on bruises. However the fetching of the special cream and sympathetic noises while it is gently rubbed in seem to be very effective as well.

DS2's current trick is to check with me what capol is good for (in our house it is sore heads but not sore tummies) and then to claim a headache....

Pink nesquik, icing sugar and water does the trick.

can't you just say no?

Wot Custy said.

We don't use it as a general panacea, but only when DS is teething, but I am convinced it's the ritual that accompanies the doseage that is the most effective aspect. It's only a hunch, as I say, but I'm interested in testing my theory.

really just say no!

White chocolate buttons (aka Magic Medicine) used to be my first resort along with those teething granules

Not tried it, but it does exist here.

Just need you to conduct some double blind trials and report back

My DD after years of resistance has recently started co-operating with the ear thermometer because she's realised it is a precursor to a spoonful of the pink stuff. She holds still and when I've finished pipes up 'can I have some special medicine now?' :o

Gripe water - does the trick every time and so much easier than mixing things and adding dye. All its going to do at worst is make them burp! Its sweet, and you just tell them its the same stuff but different brand (if they ask!)

Lipslave, I have a ds and a dd so could have a go as long as I'm not reported to the Ethics Commitee

Buy a different brand. Some of them are really horrible

I agree monoid, we bought a Lloyds pharmacy (not sure if that's a national brand or not, there's quite a few near me) own brand nurofen. Bloody awful, orange flavoured but soooooooo sweet.

sometimes if my ds has growing pains in his leg and wants some medicine but dont wanna give calpol i just give a spoonful of abidec the multivitamins it comes in a liquid like calpol although i think its banana flavour not strawb

Infacol would be a good one, it isn't pink and it orange not strawberry but it has the right look and consistency of medicine so I think mine would certainly fall for it.

when dd (2.5) gets worked up into a screaming frenzy about sleeping and being 'poorly' I use a glycerin blackcurrant cough syrup that has no active ingredients

there is def a market for this! btw ds (3 years older than dd) has always refused oral medicine

Sambucol (elderberry and vit c extract)

Immune boosting at the same time :)

Mousey don't discount growing pains - they can be real. It's called a diganosis of elimination, i.e. if they can't find anything else there, then the pain is probably due to rapid growth.

Key things to look out for are:

• Pain happens in the evening/at night, often after they have gone to bed (and their muscles are relaxing)
• Touch/massage is perceived as making the pain better rather than worse.

We have found that tiger balm works really well, the sensation of heat seems to dull the pain and allow the muscles to relax so that the DDs can sleep.

They do both tend to grow in fits and starts and are both ridiculously tall.

We do strawberry juice - it´s expensive but with us it works really well.

Try "magic powder" or teething powders (Ashton & Parsons particularly good!) - we'd substitute these for Calpol and they worked a treat. And "magic" cream for the external ills :-)

Our home made "calpol" is honey (organic!), red food dye and strawberry glycerol syrup (patent pending!!!) It's in a Calpol bottle and box and is produced for the night time "growing pains". It's miraculously effective. Growing pains...