Calpol

[rcr11123]

Hi all

my daughter is 14 months and has never tolerated calpol - up until around 8 months it would make her vomit and she would choke badly. She got a virus while abroad in Spain where they prescribed suppositories for her (they also tried to give oral paracetamol and ibuprofen with no luck and lots of sick)

we got back and I asked the GP for suppositories occasionally so I had a supply at home for when she was unwell as our experience with calpol has not been a great one

anyway tonight I tried her on calpol again as she has a temperature and was very ratty, runny nose etc. she wouldn’t take off the spoon, I tried mixing 2.5ml in with a few things just to see if she’d take it with no luck - she finally took 2.5ml mixed into ice cream. When I tried another 2.5ml in ice cream so she had the full dose she wouldn’t take it again so basically my question is will 2.5ml still help with her temperature etc?

the reason I didn’t give suppository as I normally would was because the gp advised I keep trying her on calpol as suppositories are “not pleasant” and not normally prescribed

I will obviously wait until 4 hours before I give her any else.

thank you, a stressed mum

My children had allergies and both struggled with calpol but could tolerate nurofen.

What a load of rubbish from the GP, suppositories not being "pleasant". Much easier than fighting with a spoon of Calpol and then having your child vomiting so you've no idea what dose you've given! I'd say crack on with them if they work for you.

Suppositories are fine! I use them myself if I've got a vomiting bug. In most of Europe they're considered more pleasant than Calpol because the kids don't notice them. It's just your GP being squeamish.

Same issue with nurofen unfortunately :(

My child vomits calpol. I switched to a generic infant paracetamol and he's fine with it.

My child has severe sensory difficulties and suppositories saved our bacon for temperatures and pain. They could never tolerate any liquid medication, it would just induce projectile vomiting.

Suppositories are used around the world for children as a norm. When we travel to my Dh's home country we stock up as they are about £20 here if you can't find a sympathetic doctor to prescribe them.

Is it actually the Calpol brand or all types of liquid paracetamol?
Calpol is VERY sweet tasting and some children love it with a passion, others just don't. The ibuprofen version of Calpol tastes like chalk to me.
We were given a generic brand once as a prescription and it was orange flavour so completely took my (then toddler) daughter by suprise as she was used to the sweet pink gloop.
Have you tried with different brands?

2.5ml of 120mg in 5ml is only 60mg. So probably won't do anything.

There is nothing wrong with giving a suppository. It's actually much easier than trying to get calpol down them.

Stick to the suppositories!

DH is Dutch, and when DD1 was teething we tried them on a visit...amazing!

They don't feel them, and you know they've got the right dose, no spitting or vomiting it up. It's absorbed quickly so gets to work faster.

We used them for all 3 DC, stocking up whenever we were in Europe as most countries use them.

The GP will be reluctant to prescribe them because they cost so much in the UK. I ordered some at the pharmacy when my DD wouldn’t take calpol. They cost £25 for 10 but it was worth it. If your GP won’t prescribe again try the pharmacy.

We used the suppositories with our second. We got them from an online pharmacy. She would just spit calpol out no matter what we tried. Once she got to around 18-24 months we tried her on calpol again and she took it normally with no drama. I don't think it's worth hiding calpol in food over just using suppositories till she'll tolerate it properly orally. She didn't mind the suppositories at all.

My oldest wasn't keen on calpol as a baby but we could get it in with tricks like blowing on her face after administering it to stop her spitting. This didn't work at all with our second.