To give Calpol everyday?

[PricklesPick]

May be a stupid question but I'm a bit of a paranoid FTM so I apologise!

Is it okay to give Calpol every day? (For a period anyway) whilst teething?

He is only just 3 months old but already has a tooth showing and seems in pain mostly during the evening.

He's been having Calpol every night before bed for about a week now but I'm just concerned about giving it too often. It's the only thing that seems to settle him down though.

We asked this same thing a few years ago and were told by a pharmacist and gp that it was fine.

Also anbesol is amazing.

My DS was awful for teething. He spent about half of the first two years of his life in pain and miserable from it, I was ready to throw a party when the last tooth came in!

We did give calpol when he was the worst, but I tried to avoid giving it for more than a week in a row. It seemed to take a month for every tooth to come in (he apparently has the same pain threshold as his father).

I feel for them, I had bother with my wisdom teeth for 5 years and you can bet I took ibruprofen for that when they were sore.

@1forAll74

I would definitely not give Calpol to a very young baby,no way.I never used it at all when I had babies years ago. Calpol has been in the news over the years, especially about those who over use it, and there used to be problems with the additives used for the colouring of it.

A teething gel of some sort is much better.as opposed to Calpol going into a baby or small child's system.

You realise they literally tell you to give Calpol to a baby before their first set of jabs? It's in the info leaflet! Health professionals advocate for Calpol in young babies clearly or that wouldn't be the current advice.

I used calpol and nurofen alternatively all day during the bad teething phases. Never exceeding the dose. It's cruel to leave them in pain.

Why are people against paracetamol in the correct or under the correct dose but are happy to give lidocaine containing products?

Have you tried teething granules? It helped my son the most

I remember getting calpol as a kid if I couldnt sleep and I associated it with that. I loved it!

Why do people keep suggesting things that you obviously can't do with a baby at bedtime (teethers, frozen flannels, etc)?! It's totally normal to need pain relief at night but not during the day for teething precisely because you can both distract and give them stuff to chew on during the day but not at night.

I don't understand people who won't give paracetamol because it is dangerous and then give them other powers and herbal stuff instead.

If you just do it at night, up to 4 days is fine.

Pharmacist here.

It's absolutely fine to give calpol every day for short time periods so long as you stay within the recommended dose limits for their age. If you are unsure about the dose talk to your pharmacist.

Pain lasting more than a few days without explanation obviously needs investigating but you have definitely done no harm by giving pain relief medication for teething.

The number of posters spreading misinformation on this thread is shocking.

@Sleepisoverrated150 it drives me mad but what do you expect from people recommending homeopathic remedies? 🤷‍♀️.

My baby is the same age as yours and literally just spoke to a paediatrician about this an hour ago (when at an appointment for something else) He said it is absolutely fine, as long as we are following the correct dosage for her age. The warning about not going over three days is just to make sure we are not trying to treat her for something like tonsillitis that the dr may then miss if we are not bringing her in to check.

Speaking to the pharmacist will help. There are other things on the market other than Calpol or teething rings. I remember nelsons teething powders for dc were very helpful and a soothing camomile based gel, can't remember the name.

Oh, really feeling for you OP ... and your wee one! Hope he's feeling more comfortable soon. Hang on in there - it will pass soon enough!

Oh, and you're doing a fantastic job

Op not sure if you are still reading but don't panic you are doing a great job! Trust your instincts you know when he is in pain.

It isn't dangerous to give paracetamol everyday for a short period of time. People quoting the "it says 3 days on the box" clearly don't understand why that it there!

You've made a gp appointment to rule other causes out which is great, for now comfort you baby if he needs it.

Also as others have said might be worth considering colic or reflux both which can be worse in the evening.

Interesting the amount of people who won't give a drug which has tight controls, testing etc but are happy to recommend a variety of medically uncontrolled/unregulated powders etc!

www.dental-nursing.co.uk/news/dentists-warn-of-risky-teething-products

For all the people insisting that using Calpol is terrible because it's a drug, and she should be using those lovely teething powders or gels instead...

I would only go 2-3 days if regular paracetamol doses, or 3-4 days at before, without consulting the GP or pharmacist. It is unlikely to do any harm at the correct doses, but it is better to use other teething methods as much as possible and I would want to rule out another issue. My DC got red cheeks with any temperature at that age. And often it looked like teething but was actually bronchiolitis, tonsillitis, an ear infection, etc.

It does sound a bit like colic too, it is hard to know with babies that age. Sometimes they are just sleep resistant, extra clingy or hungry. And because it's so hard to work out with babies that small, the occasional dose of paracetamol can actually be all you have left in your parenting tool kit. Likelihood is the GP will recommend trying calpol to see if that helps then calling them back if it doesn't, so definitely not the worst thing you can do!

We intuitively want to fix our children's pain, but sometimes the best thing we can give them is comfort. Some pain is normal and natural and manageable without pain relief, But you will know when your child has reached their pain threshold. Trust yourself in the short term, and then if it goes on longer trust the professionals.

Poor OP, she’ll be a wreck after some of the replies on here.

Ages ago there was a thread on here where a new mum asked if it was okay to only change her ten month old every five or six hours (excluding dirty nappies) and hand to god, the number of people who crawled out of the woodwork declaring that they always changed nappies every two to three hours absolutely without fail ever, night or day, even if the nappy was utterly dry, and to do less was child abuse...

Sometimes threads turn into tiny echo-chambers where the sounds of people patting their own backs drowns out anything approaching sensible discussion about the OP's actual problem. In some cases you just have to shrug and move on but when someone is struggling, looking for help, and clearly trying to do the right thing, these sorts of pearl-clutching "oh I could never!" replies start to feel less about giving advice and more about standing on someone's unhappiness to scramble a little higher up the Perfect Performance Parent hierarchy.

There was a stage with both of my children when we were giving it every night, or near enough, for teething pain. This was around the year mark, when the first molars were coming in (they are the largest teeth, and often the most painful). We went from not giving much, to feeling very guilty. Then they came through (after taking their sweet time about it), and I've given it a handful of times in the following year.

At its worst, we were alternating it during the night paracetamol and iburprofen for a short period (as well as anbesol liquid), and it still wasn't enough.

Teething is horrid, and if your child is in pain, then absolutely give them something. I'd be concerned if the first teeth were giving this much pain though, and think its worth getting it checked out for your peace of mind.

When my kids were little there was something called Medised on the market - i think it was paracetamol with a sedative in to help babies sleep. It was wonderful stuff and when my DD had a cold or teething it was a godsend. It helped her sleep and stopped the pain. However when my son was 8 days old he was hospitalised for a week and I stayed with him so my DH had to look after my DD who was 20 months at the time she was not used to being away from me so she literally screamed for me all night!!! The only way for either of them to get sleep was by using medised so sometimes needs must!!

My 1 year old has had calpol or ibuprofen nearly every day for a couple of weeks.Her teeth are causing her a load of pain and she's screaming the house down.

I think one dose a night for a few nights is absolutely fine. Personally I won’t give my little children Anbesol after reading about the risk of Benzocaine , the active ingredient, causing oxygen levels to drop dangerously.

The regular evening timing suggests something else is going on as well as the teething - neither of mine had particular teething times of the day. I’m no expert but I can’t see why that would be. Colic, however, I know a lot about and that was regular - evening with DS1 and late afternoon with DS2. So I would speak to your GP about this.
If you do need to use a painkiller or temperature lowering med, ditch the calpol and get children’s nurofen - far better.