Giving Calpol ALL the time!

[Earrrrr]

Has anyone been through a stage like this? Where it feels like I'm using Calpol all the time?!

My son has had a really rough few months. He had bronch and was in hospital first, then when he came out he had about a week where he was okay then he caught a horrid virus (not Covid) where he needed Calpol /Ibuprofen every 4 hours for about a week and a half to control his temp and now he has a perforated ear drum for the same virus which he seems uncomfortable with and the GP says may take a few weeks to heal.

Oh and he's got two teeth coming too!

All in all he's had Calpol or ibuprofen every day for about the past 3 and a half weeks!

The GP has seen him for all of these things and they have been the ones to tell me to give him pain relief but I just feel like it's too much but of course in the same token I can't stop giving him pain relief if he needs it!

You said yourself you feel that you're giving him too much calpol. I agreed with you and now you're arguing against me. I'm not sure what you want from this thread but I hope your ds feels better soon

Some solidarity from parents who feel like their child is never ending with illnesses is what I was after, not medical advice because I've already sought that multiple times. Our doctors clearly have contradicting views on this so 🤷‍♀️

We only use it to lower a temperature or when they are in clear discomfort.

Well I certainly wouldn’t be linking to up to date medical advice if I was making up who I am. Far too much effort that’s for sure.

I think you've had a bad run with illness OP and you've done what the doctors have recommended. Don't sweat it. Not referring to you but on the subject I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing (as in causes no harm) but I do think some parents give Calpol out at the drop of a hat. I have a one year old and a four year old, I think we've finished one bottle of Calpol in all that time and most of that was after their jabs. The one year old has only had it for illness once, the four year old maybe 3 times.

@DukkaTheHallsWithBoughsOfHolly

Well I certainly wouldn’t be linking to up to date medical advice if I was making up who I am. Far too much effort that’s for sure.

I'm not saying you are making up who you are but I'm sure you can appreciate that I can't really take medical advice from someone on the internet against what my doctor has told me?

Oh wow @Earrrrr! This thread took a turn 🙄

FWIW I have had 2 little ones with numerous hospital admissions for sky high temps that wouldn’t shift. I have always been advised by the dr’s that calpol (as per dosage) is fine. I specifically asked Aled about prolonged use and the dr was very clear that he would be more concerned about me not helping my child who is is pain than giving calpol correctly.
Some people have a higher pain threshold. Some feel it more. Some kids sail through these things, others need more help.

Don’t be made to feel bad for helping out your baby when he’s suffering 💐💐

• I obviously didn’t preview. I have no idea who Aled is 😂 (but I’m sure he would tell you calpol is fine!)

When you are giving paracetamol/brufen every 4 hours do you check temp before that? I’d give if he was hot and miserable
or in pain I wouldn’t just continue because I’ve been told to I’d need a reason. If he’s still got temps of 40 after 5 days I’d want him back to hospital to check the source! Because he’s clearly not getting better. Do you also strip down, cool room plenty fluids etc? On antibiotics?

Febrile convulsions usually occur when the temp rises really fast rather than just having a high temp, they can cause rashes, fast breathing and heart rate abs make the child feel rubbish or they can feel fine just be hot - I do think the cause of the temp determines that though. Do give it if your baby is unwell and miserable but I wouldn’t blindly give it just because I was told.

My youngest dc ended up in hospital with septic arthritis at around the same ages.

They had surgery, and we stayed in a week for iv antibiotics. He was given practically double the dose of both paracetamol and ibruprofen for nearly 3 weeks. I was told at the time the dose on the bottle is quite a low one relative to what they could have to prevent accidental overdoses at home.

We’ve been through phases where we feel like we’re pouring it down them, but I couldn’t bear to leave them screaming in pain with whatever ailed them that particular week.

When you are giving paracetamol/brufen every 4 hours do you check temp before that? I’d give if he was hot and miserable

Yes he did have a temp again by the time he was due his next dose but the doctor also told me that I was to give it even if he didn't to prevent him getting one rather than waiting for him to have one. Only for 4-5 days whilst the virus he had ran it's course. He was very adamant that they wanted to prevent him getting a high fever during this time rather than waiting for him to get one before doing something. Obviously other doctors disagree with that as evidenced here but I chose to follow what he said. He'd been taken in that day in an ambulance after going blue and feeling freezing cold with a temp of nearly 40 and was not well at all (very clingy, sleeping loads and miserable too) so I took the advice I was given at the time.

I'm now giving it to him when he seems in pain with his ear. So not every 4 hours like before but just when he starts to get upset/pulling on his ear so for pain now rather than fever. Again, on the advice of the GP who saw him for his ear.

@Ostryga

Well carry on then. It’s not my kid that’s going to lose out at the end of the day 🤷🏻‍♀️

Wow, what an unpleasant remark. I’d take the advice on the NHS over some random busybody anti medicine mum-shamer on the internet.

I was told at the time the dose on the bottle is quite a low one relative to what they could have to prevent accidental overdoses at home.

This is another thing they told me too. When he was in for the bronchiolitis on the ward they weighed him to get the right dose instead of just using his age. So he actually had more than the what's suggested on the box as they went off his weight rather than just his age.

That sounds really scary @Marmite27 hope they made a speedy recovery!

You will go through phases where it will feel like you use it everyday for weeks and then you won't use it for months until you need to and that generally happens in the middle of the night when you've run out of bloody calpol!

Sometimes they have everything going wrong with them all at once or one after another and sometimes they space it out better :) I used to think I gave mine a lot of calpol but to me it's mainly for pain relief and only a few times for temp.

I wouldn't sit in pain and it would make me miserable so I wouldn't expect a baby/toddler/child to sit in pain either, it will make them miserable. Each time I give a dose for a problem, I see instant relief and to me that's a good enough reason to use it when my toddler needs it. we know our children better than anyone else, we know their normal self and we know when they are in pain even if they are young to communicate that.

Yes, it's done by weight where I live and my DC have always been on higher doses than they are if you go by the UK calpol bottle. But they are big for their ages.

I remember an NCT friend had a fright when their toddler (about 18mo) found the bottle, managed to open it and they found about half the bottle gone. But they called 111 and they said not to bring the child in as children can't overdose on calpol they said they would only worry if multiple bottles worth were consumed.

@Earrrrr

I was told at the time the dose on the bottle is quite a low one relative to what they could have to prevent accidental overdoses at home.

This is another thing they told me too. When he was in for the bronchiolitis on the ward they weighed him to get the right dose instead of just using his age. So he actually had more than the what's suggested on the box as they went off his weight rather than just his age.

That sounds really scary @Marmite27 hope they made a speedy recovery!

She’s fine now, thank you. Hopefully your little one will be soon too

Oh OP, you are really in the trenches with your LO! It is so tough when they are sick for ages - you must be exhausted. We have had the same periods of constant illness (and bloody teeth!), then long periods of time where they were just a little coldy from nursery and didn’t need anything.

My LO also had Bronch- I have taken her to Bristol Children’s Hospital (closest) a couple of times for breathing conditions related to illness and they definitely advised giving calpol consistently to keep the pain at bay and give them time to sleep and heal. So I had the same info as you and this was only about a year ago.

I have no reason to think the doctors and nurses at the BRI don’t know what they are doing.

My GP has also been pretty robust in advocating consistent use of painkillers for fevers and being unwell. He said the three day warning on the bottle was to get parents to bring their children for a check in case they had something nasty.

Fingers crossed you are nearly at the end of the poorly spell now!