Why is it so bad to use Benylin to make a child sleepy?

[YesAnastasia]

Or other drowsiness causing antihistamines. You can use them for travel sickness (and other sicknesses) in early ages, allergy congestion/coughs/sneezes and other things but 'do not use to sedate a child'.

If the child has problems sleeping and this helps everyone, what's the harm?

The only one for night time is 6+, the ones suitabl for small children do not sedate.

If a baby or small child is ill then one of the important signs to watch out for is being unable to rouse them. Drug induced sleep isn't particularly useful if you need to determine whether they can be roused.

Plus, people will over medicate children so they will sleep, even if the child isn't ill.

Do you mean on a regular basis? Or as a one off?

There's one I used (when sick) for DC1 which was 6 months+ that's now 2+ which the chemist told me has the same ingredients but people were abusing it so they upped the age limit! While I gave it to DC1 from 6 months I did not give it to DC2 until over 2 as it had changed in between the children. It was very handy for toothache or sickness that prevented them from a good nights sleep.

I think a small number of little children have been killed by sedative-containing cough mixtures, so they increased the age limit to 6. I'm reading between the lines, but why would you want to give a drug to your child for your convenience, rather than limiting its use to easing their discomfort in illness?

There are plenty of adults who are addicted to Benylin. It is a strong, addictive sedative.

When my DD1 was younger, when she was ill I'd use use medised in the evening and calpol during the day. By the time my DD2 was born, medised was withdrawn but tescos sold an equivalent but the age was raised. Rightly or wrongly, I continued to give it on occasion. I have continued to do the same with DS1 (even though the age was upped again) , but haven't had occasion to for a very long time. I have done so on the basis that it didn't do my first child any harm. I spoke to the chemist and was told that the age was changed because people were abusing it and sometimes inadvertently mixing it with other drugs that have caused problems. Not that they cause peoples on their own taken properly.

Because if a child has problems sleeping, it tends to be an ongoing problem, and medicating your child every night is (a) not great for their growing body, and (b) not going to help them learn how to sleep, or the parents learn how to help them to learn how to sleep, so (c) they miss out on getting really high quality sleep. Just like it's bad for adults to use sleeping tablets/wine every night, only more so.

So it's an ethical issue. If you follow the age restrictions & give the correct dosage everything will be fine. It won't harm them considering the medicine is safe for other minor ailments.

I'm just not cool with the idea of drugging my child for my own convenience. As tempting as it may be sometimes...

It doesn't make you sleepy!

No, me either divingoff...

Diphenhydramine does induce drowsiness.

It really ISN'T just an ethical issue if it's done regularly, it's a medical issue.

All medications have side effects and increasing dose or frequency increases side effects. In occasional ones, the risk can be vanishingly small and outweighed by the benefit, and that's fine, There is always a high bar to prescribing daily or regular medicine to small children, as their bodies are growing rapidly, they often react very differently to drugs vs adults, and there are not long scale controlled studies on children, for (yes) ethical reasons. Some medications still end up being given on a regular basis, eg reflux or asthma ones, but it's avoided if possible.

An adult parallel would be the fact that ibuprofen is a great thing to take occasionally, but taking it daily long term has a high risk of leading to gut problems, associated iron issues etc.

And this is quite separate from the sleep learning and quality issues, which as also very real.

All this, of course, applies other medications but not in fact to modern benalyn which will not make your child sleepy (and there's very little scientific evidence that it even works on coughs)

give the correct dosage

The correct dosage for the stated symptoms.

I had no idea that this was why cough medicine wasn't recommended for young children.

My dd's are prone to bad coughs when they get the cold and I have asked about cough medicine before to be told it's not recommended. We use glycerine to sooth their throat if they are coughing lots which was really all I was looking for.

I am not comfortable with people using medicine to get their child to sleep better. Babies and very young children don't always sleep for 12 hour stretches. Fact. Parents just need to deal with that.

And believe me I have been through weeks of sleepless nights for apparently no reason but never once has it ever occurred to me to give them medicine to make them sleep - unless of course there is a reason for giving them the medicine, like for teething pain, a fever etc.

What is this obsession with getting children to sleep all night?! I know sleep deprivation is horrendous but come on!

A lot of assumptions are being made on very little information. I agree with all of you.