Baby paracetamol - what did you do?

[JDLXNDR]

So, my 4.5 month old is teething, or so we think. She’s constantly dribbling and wants to put everything in her mouth. She’s also a little fussy, wants to be held all the time and is waking up 3/4 times during the night. When she wakes I breastfeed and she goes back to sleep.

My husband and MIL think that we should be giving her paracetamol (a Spanish alternative to Calpol - we live outside of the UK!) before she goes to bed and in the morning. I disagree!

What are you thoughts? Mine are that if and when she is in pain I’ll give it to her but she’s not crying as if she is and therefore I’m just giving it to her why? Because she’s a bit fussy?

I only give calpol if the child ( mine are a bit older now) is actually in pain or has a temp. I found anbesol good for teething but it’s mainly alcohol so for child two I just rubbed a bit of brandy on the gums.

Your baby is doing obviously in discomfort, if not pain. So why would you not be giving her paracetamol?

Please don’t follow the lead of the poster putting brandy on her baby’s gums. I despair

Yes I agree with you.
The official advice is only to give if the child is in distress even when there's fever present.

It's your child and you know best.

I give it when I think my child is in pain. Don't see why you wouldn't.

You could compromise. Give her some and if she wakes just the same then you know she's not waking in pain. If she sleeps better and wakes less, it seems like she must have been in pain and you can rest easy knowing you've soothed her pain and everyone can get a better night's sleep.

Never gave mine any Calpol/paracetamol. For teething I have them Ashton and parsons powder. Brilliant stuff.

If I had toothache, I'd take paracetamol or other pain killers, even if I was just uncomfortable not crying in pain.

Seems unfair not to do the same for a baby/child just because they can't get it themselves.

Wtf don't use brandy. I only used paracetamol if needed with a fever or pain, not as a 'just in case' suppositories are far easier and effective than oral liquid

Oh gosh, this is bringing back memories. With DD1, she seemed to wake up crying in the night for months with "teething". I would hold off as long as I could in case it wasn't teething after all, but after we'd been up for two hours, I used to cave and give Calpol. But I hated doing so, and I still worry now that having Calpol so much as a baby might have damaged her liver or kidneys.

With DD2, somebody told me about Ashton and Parsons Teething Powders. We went through a lot of them too, but apparently they're only camomile and other long-established herbal ingredients, so I felt happier using them, and they seemed to be as effective as Calpol.

Maybe your family/friends in the UK could post you some teething powders. It's so difficult: baby obviously can't tell you what the problem is, you don't want to leave them in pain, but equally all medications have side effects and you don't want to give her Calpol unnecessarily.

I gave mine calpol and nurofen regularly during teething, no way would I want them to suffer. It's better to give it before it becomes full blown pain. Can't stand people who deny their children it

Children aren't going to get liver damage from getting paracetamol when they are in pain.

Give your children pain relief when they are suffering.

This might be what you meant in your post, so apologies if I have misread and am being patronising.
Calpol is paracetamol. Calpol is just the brand name. The active ingredient is paracetamol.
So if you'd give calpol in the uk, then no difference with paracetamol with Spanish branding for babies.
FwIW I used calpol for both mine when teething. Not every night for a long time but when they seemed to be in pain for a few nights.

Breastfeeding will also be soothing them though and the hormones released by breast feeding are helpful for pain. And it's normal to be waking several times in the night.
Hard to make decisions when you are tired. Bit giving some pain relief to see if it helps won't do the baby any harm.

Highly likely it's not teething! I thought mine was teething from about 3 months due to dribbling and fussiness, turns out that's just what babies are like (teeth came through at nearly 8 months)
So I wouldn't give calpol personally

If I'm reading your OP correctly, your baby isn't crying, just fussing.

Mine is the same. I gave him calpol last night (weds) for the same reason and it made no difference. I'm holding off, going to get some teething powders.

Will give calpol again with a temp or if he seems to be in pain, and/or if the powders don't help.

I am happy to use paracetamol when they are actually teething.

But a lot of fussiness at 4.5 months is normal, as is putting everything in their mouth and dribbling a lot. None of these are necessarily related to teething. Mine did all of this from 3/4 months and didn't actually cut a tooth until she was nearly 1!

So in your situation I wouldn't unless there was also a temperature.

If she's in pain then absolutely give Calpol.

Does she normally wake that often? Increased night waking can be a sign that teething is causing pain. One of mine would only sleep when teething having panadol 30 minutes before bed.

Teething gels and powders are no longer recommended for use.

If you're unsure give a half dose before bed and see if there's any improvement. I would absolutely give baby pain relief if Teething.

They teeth for MONTHS at that age. You might not see teeth for another 3-4 months. I also found it a very fussy age, their sleep changes around then as they start to decipher day vs night.

The teething process requires an element of inflammation so giving painkillers can be counterproductive. Teethers, chewing on a flannel, etc all can help.

My baby teethed at 4.5 months.
I refuse to let anyone suffer pain without paracetmol.
Nurofen is longer lasting and really helped.
I also used a teething gel.
I prefer medicines and treatment than unnessary suffering.

If you give anything ibuprofen is far better for teething than paracetamol. But I'd only give it if baby was in pain and distressed.

If I thought they were in pain then I would give them paracetamol. During the day if they could be distracted from their misery I wouldn't give it, but I did tend to at bedtime! As a grown up things are always worse at bedtime when you're tired and there's nothing to stop you feeling miserable.

I'd suggest you try it OP and if 30 minutes later they stop grizzling then you know the paracetamol was worth it and it might give you more confidence in your decision next time.

Teething power and gel didn’t work at all for us. The Spanish calpol was excellent, I used to stock up every time we went!!

I give my 6 month old calpol on occasion, but not all day everyday. We use teething toys, some can be put in the fridge which can help massively too.

I also freeze breast milk and pop a chunk of it in a weaning dummy. Very messy as you can imagine, but gives him a lot of relief.

I’ll also encourage him to feed more as breast milk contains endorphins which act as pain relief, plus the action of suckling alone promotes stress and pain relief in infants.

Thank you everyone for your replies.

Just to be clear, I’m not opposed at all to giving pain relief (my LO has had the medicine after vaccines for example) but I would rather not just give it to her for the sake of it.

Somebody mentioned her age and it being normal for her to wake, which I agree with. I think she’s going through a bit of a sleep regression but last night she only woke up twice and neither time was she crying as if in pain. I breastfed her for 10-20 minutes and she went back to sleep.

If I suspect any pain before bedtime or during the evening (I can usually tell by her cry) I will give her the pain relief.

Interesting to hear about gels/powders. I’ll have a read about them. Might skip the brandy though 😂

Thanks again to you all!

For some reason gel didn't work for my DS1 and we went through the whole teething stage without a single dose of paracetamol, a lot of breastfeeding and sleepless night, first child I had no clue what I was doing 😁DS2 when it is obvious it is theeting, he's waking up crying in pain, paracetamol was a saver 😊😊 my husband is still reluctant, but I agree with other posters, if you see your child is clearly in pain, not just fussy, why not help him/her and yourself with medicine approved for the exact issue you're facing. I do pay attention if he was, for example sick recently and already had several doses of calpol, but fortunately theeting and caching a bug usually is months apart for us, so I am confident he didn't have too much of paracetamol during that period