Do you drug your babies so you can get a good night's sleep?

[pablopatito]

DP and I are not ones for drugs, both being brought up my mothers from the "plenty of water and lots of fresh air" school of medical care. But DS (11 months old) has been teething and has a cold and he's been having even more broken sleep than normal and he's never been a brilliant sleeper. So the last couple of nights we've given him a dose of medised and omg, he's slept like a log! We haven't had a peep out of him for 12 solid hours. Its bliss! I've had the best nights sleep I've had in over a year.

Suddenly, the tempation to drug him at the merest whiff of a sniff has become overwhelming.

So the decision to drug? How can I be sure I only drug him because its right for him, and not be influenced by my selfish desire to get a good night's sleep?

Call me naive but I am shocked by this thread. Drugging ones child so you get a good nights sleep? Surely unless there is a good reason and the doc says it is ok it is a total no-no? Not something I will be doing with my daughter (who is not a good sleeper btw).

I think the key thing is - its great if you can go the homeopathic etc. route, and it works for you. However, we were in the hospital for the first month because DS had a very serious heart condition - and he was pumped full of everything they could lay their hands on. So I guess now I trust in medicine as it saved his life then. If he has a good diet and is generally healthy, I don't think the occasional dose of something is so bad. And they genuinely need it when they have a temperature - its the only thing that works quickly and safely.

no, not unless she is ill. past couple of nights, she's been quite ropey cutting a 2-year molar, so we've given her nurofen.

it says on the medised bottle

do not use for longer than 3 days without consulting your gp

I would never do this personally, although I did give it to dd2 last night as she had a terrible cough and was upset, in that half asleep/half awake mode so I thought a dose of medised would just take her under enough to help her get off to sleep.

dont see how paracetamol or nurofen on their own without the anti histamine would make your child sleep betteer personally.

Lazycow. Interesting post. Why isn't medised a precription only drug if phenergan is from memory a prescription only drug ?

Anyone know ?

I dont think they are the same actually

Nothing works on dd - medised, cough mixture - all just bugger up her sleep. My dh, bad sleeper who passed it on to dd, was drugged on phenergan for much of the first 2 years of his life.

I have drugged Dd2 to get her to sleep.

At 14 mths old she had never slept through the night and was only sleeping on average 2 hours a night. I was like a zombie, and had Dd1 to see to too.

My g.p perscribed Dd2 Phenergan. The first couple of nights were great, she didn't sleep through but was so dopey that when she did wake she would go back off after a few minutes.

However I was alarmed at her behaviour then in the day. She would sit and do nothing. No playing, interacting with her sister or anything. IMO if i had carried on using it, it would have affected her development.

So i stopped using it and tried other methods. I have only used it since when she had chicken pox.

I do still use medised but only when they have a cold, not just if i want them to sleep through.

You can buy phenergan over the counter, i did when Dd had chicken pox.

lazy cow, medised contains diphenhydramine hydrochloride, not promethazine hydrochloride, they are similar but not the same. I is an antihistamine, but it is a different formulation.

I was amazed and shocked when talking to a group of mums once at how liberally they gave the stuff to their children, but I think it is like calpol people just don't think of it as a drug. I would never give my self paracetamol for no reason and certainly not for days on end.My Ds (18th) can't have medised any way as he is a wheezer i think the reason medised can be given to 3mth + not on prestription is because the promethazine hydrochloride is mixed with paracetamol and is a very small dose compared to phenagan.

It is important however to remeber that the use of antihistaminse as sedadting agents in young children is not acceptable. I belive that if a child is sore, calpol/nurofen wih help them sleep, it should not be artifically induced.

I am a firm believer in not witholding pain relief just because someone can't tell you "My such-and-such hurts, Mummy!"

before ds could talk, once I had changed his nappy, given him a drink, offered food, cuddles, extra blankets, etc, he got calpol. I would rather give him an unnecessary dose of painkiller than have him in pain all night. It wasn' about my sleep, it was about his sleep. It is miserable when pain is keeping you awake, sleep is the best healer, why deny it to your child if you can give it?

I have only used medised once, I have always stuck to calpol. I wouldn't give Medised to a baby, personally, having seen my nearly 3 year old's reaction to his first ever dose (out like a light for 14 hours! He was very tired though) which I gave when he had a cough that kept waking him up all night.

I don't think paracetamol would actually help them sleep but it may take away the source of pain which was preventing them from sleeping in the first place.

www.mypharmacy.co.uk/medicines/medicines/m/medised/medised_infant.htm this link has info on infant medised, must admit what concerns me it the fact there are 6 E numbers alone in it and i use it with my son! :) xx

tatties you are right there is notheing sedating about calpol or neurofen.

I am a firm beliver that if the chap is crying and I cannot get to the bottom of the proble, having excluded all other possible causes he will get a dose of calpol, I would never leave him if I though he was in pain,. Calopl is not just for temps!

I am always constantly amazed by my mothers confessions of the stuff she gave me as a baby.
I was constantly on gripe water ( which had booze in my day!!) and if wind was very bad, a teaspoon of warm brandy with sugar.
Apparently I was as good as gold after that!!

My kids, when infants did have calpol when younger, and only my third baby who had lots of sleep and health problems was given medised.

I had heard of phenagen, but couldnt find it, but only heard of the fantastic effects of medised at a sleep clinic.
The HV left the room for a moment and a another mother pulled a bottle out of her bag and waxed lyrical about its benifits.
I have to say that in all the medised was the best advice.

My son when he reached the magic age of one was put on a daily dose of piriton.
And I hated it.
He spent day time on the sofa , sucking his thumb. He also ate less, which was a real worry.
I looked up side effects of the drug, and took him off it. ( headaches, nausea, loss of appitite)
when we found out about the allergies, his skin improved, and he began to sleep for longer periods at night, and increased his calorie intake.

He still is heavily druged with other stuff during the whole of the tree pollen and hay fever season.
Add the eczema stuff and I come out of boots with two huge bags, just for one child.

Before children I rarely had any painkillers, now for years my med cupboard is full!!

i gave dd3 medised last night. she has had a snotty nose and the snot was runninb back down her throat making her cough. she was very tired, and she just couldnt sleep. i tried changing her nappy, feeding her, cuddling her, but the cough was nasty. so i gave it to her and cuddled her till she drifted off. then i put her in her cot popped up slightly, she slept for 8hours.

now dd2, is 3.5yrs old. she has sleep problems, mainly her screaming and screeching for upto and over 3hours per night. she doesnt sleep through, never has done despite sleep training. she has a perscription for vallergan. it knocks her out for 8hours. but i hate doing it, as she is dopey the following day.

williamsmummy, i have 3 medicine cupboards. one full of bath additives and creams, one full of anti-histimes, inhalors, calpol, medised and neurofen(neurofen for dd3 whose temps dont go down with calpol on its own). then there is peters cupboard. currently empty, but soon to be refilled i hope.

I have medised. I think I've used it once or twice. Only for snotty snotty colds that are keeping the kids from sleeping - I take sudafed for the same thing, myself. I wouldn't be comfortable using medised without a snotty cold, and I certainly wouldn't be comfortable using it for more than a day or two in a row.

Medised certainly works like magic. I use it when ds has a very sniffly cold and I cannot pretend I don't enjoy the side effects I can utterly understand why Pablo is aware she might be tempted to use it to get some sleep, and I am sure anyone else whose child doesn't sleep either can sympathise too.

Medised certainly works like magic. I use it when ds has a very sniffly cold and I cannot pretend I don't enjoy the side effects I can utterly understand why Pablo is aware she might be tempted to use it to get some sleep, and I am sure anyone else whose child doesn't sleep either can sympathise too.

I 'drug' ds2 (3yrs) every night so that he will asleep. Like a lot of other children with autism he just doesn't seem to be able to sleep. On a typical night he was wide awake until 1am (sometimes later), would fall asleep for about an hour and then be awake at 20-minute intervals until about 5am.

The Paediatrician recently prescribed melatonin and the difference has been amazing. He will now fall asleep by 10pm. He still wakes up several times during the night but for the first time in years we can go to bed at a reasonable hour. Ds2's behaviour during the day has also improved and he is no longer as hyper as he was.

So why doesn't Medised work on all children?

DD2 has slept through maybe 10 times; she is 19 months old. The HV quietly suggested Medised as a way to get her to break the habit, but it had no effect at all.

God, I've never even heard of Medised. Infant Ibufron -whatever and Caplpol in this house