Baby Medicine

[HDav]

Hi, I need help. My husband and I have been giving our LO daily doses of baby panadol for weeks without thinking about the danger. LO was teething badly when we started and now gets gribbly during the day in pain so we continued on. We never go over 4 dozrs in 24hrs and usually give her 3 a day. After assessing what we've been doing we've realized how incredibly stupid we have been. I'm so terrified we've caused long term damage to her health. Is there anyone that has ever done this that can give us any peace of mind?

You need to book an appt with your Dr to get to the bottom of whats going on with her.

I'm not sure what gribbly means but yes, if sbaby is in enough pain to require painkillers for weeks they definitely need to see a GP.

I'm going to call the doc in the morning and ask to be seen. She is our first LO and we are so in love and would never do anything to hurt her. Km devastated that we were so stupid not to realise that there could be danger involve, I don't know why I didn't think of it. Gribbly is just irritated and unable to settle, chrwing her little fingers and toys and just sore with her teeth. In hindsight we were giving her it out of habit knowing that she would only get worse if we didn't hive her the panadol, we definitely weren't using it as a last resort like we should of been. I've never felt so scared before in my life. She's almost 9months as well so she was getting 3 5ml doses 3 times a day for weeks. It's unacceptable

I know it’s hard but try not to panic OP, you haven’t been purposefully neglectful or hurt your DD. Yes maybe it’s not ideal to rely so heavily on painkillers, but I’m sure she’ll be fine. I’ve given calpol at bedtime for a week or so when DS was cutting teeth and will give him some if he’s unsettled and I can’t work out why to see if it helps. I think it’s more important to work out why your little one is seeming uncomfortable so frequently, had she definitely been cutting teeth all this time? I find personally with teeth it’s a few days, a week at most of being grizzly. Could it be something else that is bothering her? Hopefully the doctor will be able to help.
Also, don’t go down a google rabbit hole, there is a school of thought that is very anti calpol so you will find scary things about medicine for little ones if you go looking for it but it doesn’t mean it’s accurate.

We have been talking about it constantly for the last day, trying to figure out if there could be something else. LO usually gets a terrible rash around her neck when there's a tooth coming in but she hasnt had it in a few weeks but as she has been pulling her ears with thougt it could of been her back teeth or maybe her ears that's bothering her. We won't know until we see the doc tomorrow but my mind is running wild with the worst case scenarios. I will never forgive myself if we've caused her damage...yes I have read everything google has on the subject, its all so scary.

There will be children who are poorly who have regular doses of calpol for a long period and are fine. Also as I understand it calpol is much gentler on the kidneys than ibuprofen based medicine. Could be ears, but also 8 month old babies can be very grumpy creatures!! Any sign of tummy discomfort indicating an allergy?

No symptoms at all. She feeds like a little champ, more or.less on 3 little solid meals a day with 3 7oz bottles throughout the day as well. Naps are pretty regular and easy. She's a genuinely a happy baby unless her mouth is bothering her. That's why we would keep giving her the baby panadol as it helped her grizzly periods and she stays content, so as long as it was after the 4hrs she had had a dose we didn't see an issue with giving her one as needed. It was never double dosed and never went over the 4 within 24hrs. Its the fact that its been a prolonged thing we've been spring that's scaring us.

Ok don’t panic. Yes of course it’s not ideal to give medications unnecessarily for prolonged periods of time but paracetamol is one of the safest medications on the market and provided you have been giving at an appropriate dose for her weight and she has no underlying health conditions (specifically liver of kidney issues) it is very unlikely to cause any harm at all. Some children have chronic pain conditions and take analgesia regularly for much longer periods. By all means speak to your gp for peace of mind but I’m sure she will be fine.

There are children up and down the country that require pain killers on a daily basis. For months on end. She will be fine as long as she's not a tottie tiny wee thing the dosssge will have been fine.

Thank you all so much for your responses, it has given us a little relief that she should be OK. She is nice and heavy/sturdy for her age, no liver or kidney problems either. I've been watching her like a hawk all day and going over her general health from the last few weeks and there definitely hasn't been any red flags that could mean damage to her. Her nappies are regular and continuous as well, no issues with her movements, no vomiting or lethargy. All good and positive things we hope

Just a quick update.
I spoke with my GP and went through all the worries about what we'd been giving LO and he confirmed that as long as we weren't going over the 4 doses in 24hrs he wasn't concerned. I told him that our worry was damage caused by prolonged use of paracetamol and he said it really wouldn't cause any issues for the length of time she'd been getting it and as we weren't abusing the dose amounts for her it shouldn't be harmful. He recommended alternating between panadol and neurofen if/when she needs it.
I just wanted to add this in as a comfort to anyone else who might have done the same thing and are scared waiting to speak to their doctor.
Thanks so much again for all the responses, it was really appreciated x

Im pleased OP. Hope you're feeling a bit better