how much paracetemol can I take?

[dublinmom]

I'm 28 weeks preg with a terrible toothache. Dentist can't see me until Thursday afternoon. Taking panadol helps the pain but it wears off after 4-5 hours or so.

I don't like taking it when I'm pregnant, I've been trying to only take it once a day or even every other day, but I am miserable from the pain. Is it okay to keep topped up, taking it every 6-8 hours or so (like the pack recommends)?

Makes my stomach ache when I take it, too, but that's not as bd as the toothache!

Paracetamol needs to be taken regularly to get the best effect from it. Taking it 1g (that's 2 tablets) 4 times a day is perfectly safe in pregnancy.

You can take whatever the pack says is appropriate. The dosage is no different. If you really need to (and it sounds like you might) ring your mw and ask about taking codeine. It's only a short time so no worries about dependancy and it's well before birth so no worries there too. FWIW I had to take it (and sleeping tablets) through last 2 months of pg and it was fine.

Oh thank you! Have been a miserable growling monster around kids all weekend. Will call about the codeine, too.

Just wanted to say be careful with co-codamol. It did the trick for my back pain last week when I had to take it for three days, but coming off it was really horrible (bad headaches in particular). It's safe to take it for a short time in pregnancy (with the say-so of your GP), but I won't be doing it again!

Watch out with codeine too - can block you up if you know what I mean! (makes your stools hard so you could get piles, so drink loads loads of water, increase prune consumption, etc!)