Can I take any pain relief?

[Katy92]

I'm about 5 weeks pregnant, and i've come down with an awful cold- coughing and splutting and sound like death.

What can I safely take? Is paracetamol really okay to take? I'm guessing night nurse is out of the question? I've not got the box just the strip of tablets so cannot check.

No chemists will be okay now for me to pester ask either....

Poor you
I know that paracetamol is fine.
Not sure about anything else though x

Paracetamol is absolutely fine & widely considered to be safe.

Night nurse also has promethazine which is an antihistamine. It makes you drowsy and is also anti nausea medication (sometimes used to treat hyperemesis in pregnant women). No evidence either way on whether it is safe but it is a first generation antihistamine and most of them are ok. NN also has dextromerhorphan which is a cough suppressant that has been demonstrated not to increase the rate of birth defects so is reasonably safe.

So all in all I personally would be comfortable taking NN - but as always I would advise you not to take the advice of a random lady from the Internet and ask a doctor! Ditto assuming that a particular packet has certain ingredients without actually having the list on the side. And obv don't take day nurse as that has ephedrine in it which is definitely not safe!

(Ps if you don't want to take the NN piriton is definitely safe during pregnancy so if you wanted to take an antihistamine + paracetamol separately that would be a good option.)